Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that has a value equivalent to money in the real world.
These digital currencies are operated by the technology known as Blockchain.
The term “Crypto” means – Hidden, secret.
Cryptocurrency ensures secure online payments to one another without any limitation and through 3rd party intermediates.
That is why many people have started to use cryptocurrency as the mode of payment in their monetary ecosystem. ( Even Elon Musk- the world’s richest person as of now has started accepting bitcoin and soon dogecoin to accept the payments of Tesla vehicles. )
This fast mode of acceptance worldwide was once an unknown identity that started to take off in the internet world after 2013.
When the cryptocurrency was launched, it was just a white paper or an online pdf mentioning the launch of bitcoin (the first cryptocurrency) and it’s working.
The technology then (2008) was very new, easy yet very complicated and complex. The person behind this technology was Satoshi Nakamoto who is still unknown to us. Maybe the founders of the cryptocurrency don’t want to reveal their identities and mentioned any random person named Satoshi Nakamoto. Or maybe Satoshi Nakamoto time traveled from the future and built this complex technology for the future generations to come.
Whatever the reason, the algorithms, and encryption in this technology are unbeatable as of now in the online world.
Cryptocurrency is decentralized (in simple terms- it’s an open-source technology) which means anyone on the internet can send or receive money without any banking or financial institutions in between.
Any transaction through cryptocurrency will be gone to a spreadsheet which will be publically visible to everyone on the internet and it’s unchangeable. This ensures transparency throughout the internet.
Blockchain is nothing but a set of connected blocks or an online ledger(where all the transactions are recorded and stored in the database ).
Bitcoin is one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies of all time.
As people knew more about bitcoin after the release of the white paper in 2008, the prices hiked immensely and the people who bought it before 2010 are now millionaires and even billionaires in the real world. Now it’s a joke to no one.
Some other popular cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Ripple(XRP), Binance, etc work on different functions and technology.
One example may be the ETHEREUM.
Ethereum works on the principle of the so-called marketed term Gas which works on the platform and technology known as the Smart Contract.
Cryptocurrencies are usually generated by Mining.
Mining is very energy and resource-consuming in nature, which is the reason many giant companies and firms dominate the mining industry.
10 Cryptocurrency other than bitcoin are –
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Stellar (XLM)
- Binance Coin (BNB)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Avalanche (AVAX)
- Polygon (MATIC)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Solana (SOL)
These crypto’s use cryptography to secure and create the transactions.
The main advantage of cryptocurrency is that the person doesn’t always have to rely on banks to verify transactions and is available online 24X7.
How much is cryptocurrency safe?
Till now, it’s the safest mode of making transactions on the internet. What the future holds, we don’t know. But the thing to be noted is that the main purpose of building cryptocurrency was the Security and safety of the user’s transactions.
So it doesn’t compromise on that expectation.
This fairly complex technical process of crypto is hard for hackers to tackle and make scams out of it.
What are the disadvantages we should be knowing about?
Unfortunately, where there is hope and possibility, there are also distractions such as the crime in the cryptocurrency world.
These scams include the following possibilities which everyone should be familiar with –
Online dating scams – Tricksters persuade people to buy schemes for dating and in return ask for Bitcoin or other cryptos. These schemes are major scams and you should avoid them. It’s in trend in the crypto world.
- Ponzi schemes in the Virtual world.
- Fake website building and persuading people to buy.
- Endorsements using celebrity faces.
- Scam calls.
Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile meaning – They can change their value within seconds and you may be in loss or profit according to their speed of volatility.
So, be aware and prepared for the highs and the lows.
The crypto era has just begun and the infancy of this technology may be the opportunity for you to invest it just to build something out of crypto. you can buy NFT’s or play virtual games in the Web 3.0 world.
The ocean of opportunities for the future internet is massive. Just observe the possibility and grab it to become a financially independent Being.