Crypto Basics
What is Crypto?
What Is Crypto?
Cryptocurrency is an ever expanding financial and technological ecosystem. While the definition of crypto is evolving, the original purpose was four fold – crypto was a Secure (encrypted) means of Anonymously transacting Digital Currency, Decentralized (Not controlled) from any banking system.
The concept of originated in the 1980’s (See History) and the first decentralized (and most famous) currency is Bitcoin, released in 2009.
Since then, crypto has evolved into countless coins, tokens, exchanges, platforms, and technologies that are still growing and adapting today.
Why Crypto?
Different people have differing opinions, but most cite the following:
- Security of transactions and ownership – you own your funds in a digital wallet, secured by encryption
- Decentralization from centralized governments. Crypto is a currency that no one entity controls – transactions are typically confirmed by consensus of multiple nodes checking each transaction network.
- Often anti-inflationary. When traditional currency is subject to inflation, most crypto-currencies have a limited supply, and increase in value over time.
Resources
Here are a number of resources to investigate to better understand the basics: