If you didn’t live under a rock for the past decade, chances are you have heard about cryptocurrency or Bitcoin.
And although it’s a heavily discussed topic currently, most people still don’t understand what the heck is cryptocurrency.
So let’s figure that out!
What is cryptocurrency?
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency, which uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions.
Overall, there are a few notable facts about cryptocurrencies that you should know.
Firstly, cryptocurrency is completely decentralized, which essentially means that it is controlled by no single entity. As many crypto lovers like to say, crypto is money of the people. Taking the power from large organizations and giving it back to people is what cryptocurrency does.
Moreover, crypto transactions are made between two parties with no third party involvement and with the help of miners. This saves you time, money and energy. Transactions that would take you 24-48 hours in traditional banks, take a couple of hours in crypto.
History of the first cryptocurrency.
The first crypto asset, Bitcoin, was launched 10 years ago, in 2009, and didn’t possess any value for the next two years. ( you can see it on Coinstats also known as top coin tracker)
However, right now the Bitcoin price is $7,200 and it has reached $20,000 at its height. The uniqueness and extremely volatile nature of this asset gave it its popularity. Another big reason was the acceptance it gained from many companies such as Microsoft, Wikipedia, Shopify, KFC Canada and etc.
Bitcoin was the first to utilize Blockchain technology, which is a list of blocks linked by cryptography. Blockchain allows digital information to be distributed not copied and was originally built for Bitcoin.
Blockchain, however, was used in many other instances from smart contracts to voting.
What are Altcoins?
The first cryptocurrency that was introduced to the market after Bitcoin was Namecoin. It, along with other coins created after Bitcoin, received the name Altcoin.
Since then over 3000 crypto assets appeared, many of which employed numerous innovations from new versions of blockchain to smart contracts. Some of the well known ones are Stellar, Bytom and Qtum.
However, many of these coins turn out to not be what they claim. Hence why, you need to be careful when investing in cryptocurrency and not put most of your funds into unknown risky assets.
How can cryptocurrencies positively affect you?
We’ve already figured out what are cryptocurrencies, but there’s one more question left:
How can it actually benefit us?
Cryptocurrencies will help you save time when dealing with money transfers, reduce the risk of fraud, gives you the chance to control your funds and so on.
On the other hand, crowdfunding campaigns and charity with cryptocurrencies have increased in popularity.
Cryptocurrency has had an amazing impact on many. Especially in countries like Venezuela, where inflation reached 1,000,000% last year, cryptocurrencies may be the only safe haven for many citizens.
Overall, cryptocurrency and blockchain are great tools that can help us solve many problems facing our world today. And one thing is clear as day, crypto assets are here to stay for good.
