Embarking on a journey through the digital realm of cryptocurrencies, we'll unravel the mystery behind these virtual assets. Prepare to delve into the world of blockchain technology, exploring its implications and understanding its transformative potential in the financial landscape.
A cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange using strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units and verify the transfer of assets.
With Bitcoin, each transaction is added to a “block,” which is then appended to the end of a chain of blocks, the “blockchain,” and nobody can tamper with the previous blocks once they have been confirmed
- People called miners run computers or chips to solve cryptographic puzzles in a race to add a new block to the blockchain
- New bitcoins are created with each block added
Anytime
You can transact at any time, rather than waiting for bank opening/operating hours
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Why Care About Cryptocurrencies?
The money that you use today – fiat currency, issued as legal tender by the government – is controlled by the governments and banks who manage its supply, issue, and distribution.
- In the aftermath of the financial crisis, many banks were not able to stay afloat and had to rely on bailouts by governments to survive, using taxpayers’ money.
- With the birth of Bitcoin, many started seeing a clear way forward for a world in which people were in control of their assets.
Trustless
A misnomer, trustless is actually a quality meant to explain that you can trust people more because you don’t have to trust anyone in particular
- You can use the blockchain with confidence knowing that nobody can tamper with it after your transaction in a block has been confirmed
