Quite a while back, there was a faceless genius named Satoshi Nakamoto who thought of creating a free and decentralised market for currency operations and gave the concept of electronic and digital currency in order to break the hierarchy of traditional currency system and here we are in the era of cryptocurrency, where users define the value of the electronic currency in the cryptocurrency market.
WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?
The word cryptocurrency is derived from two words, crypt and currency where crypt means secretive or hidden and currency means the fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use in monetary exchanges. According to Wikipedia cryptocurrency is defined as a digital asset which is designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets
In simple words cryptocurrency is nothing but an electronic asset which is bought and sold according to the fluctuations in demand of a specific type in the cryptocurrency market.
Now the second most important question which is going to arrive in your mind is-
"WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY USED FOR?"
Cryptocurrency is use for creating trading spectrum for digital and easy exchange of monetary values. It is also use for low cost transferring of money and it provides a safe and anonymous platform for storing one's wealth.
CRYPTOCURRENCY AND BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain is the key ingredient for crypto currency without Blockchain the whole concept of secrecy in the roots of digital currency will be lost. But, what is Blockchain?
Blockchain is literally a "Chain of block" but not in the usual sense as the word suggest. In Blockchain, Block represents the user's data/information such as user's encrypted identity, date/time of transaction and amount of monetary value while, chain represents the public database. Together it forms the set of user's encrypted data which is transferred from one end to another and gets stored under public database in the form of digital ledger.
Blockchain is further divided into three process.
1. Storing users digital identity/date and time of transaction made through crypto tokens/ amount of monetary value.
2. Assigning digital signature to users and keeping an encrypted record of the recipient parties which are involved in the transaction process.
3. Using "hash" as a unique code to store digital information to separate the disclosure from other blocks in the database by creating a unique algorithm for specific entry (Where entry represents user's information)
WHAT IS CRYPTO TOKEN?
Crypto token is one of the type of cryptocurrency which represent an asset or specific use and reside on the blockchain. Created through an initial coin offering (ICO) crypto tokens are often used to raise funds for crowd sales.
Some most popular cryptocurrency examples available in cryptocurrency market are as follows.
- Bitcoin 2009 (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Tether (USDT)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Libra (LIBRA)
- Monero (XMR)
- EOS (EOS)
- Bitcoin SV (BSV)
- Binance Coin (BNB)
In a nutshell, Cryptocurrency is changing the sovereignty of monetary system and bringing a decentralised structure which is beneficial for every individual who believes that money should not be the commodity which should be entirely handle by the government's monitoring.