Crypto for Beginners

The History of Cryptocurrency. 

Cryptocurrency has been going through some wildly transitional phases over the course of the last decade. Even though the public stumbled onto it over the past few years, it has a history that dates back further than you may think. And while you may think that Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to surface, cryptos have actually been around long before Bitcoin was invented. 

Bitcoin- was it the beginning of crypto? 

Cryptos were being played around with by cryptographers for decades before Bitcoin came into being. People created their own, but a definition of what cryptocurrency was had not yet been answered. 

When did bitcoin come into being?

Bitcoin came into being in October 2008. A white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto was released, it described a decentralized network which was used to fuel a new cryptocurrency that would become Bitcoin. It would take years before merchants began to accept this new form of money as payment, but after this, it started to catch on. Not long after this, new cryptocurrencies would be launched on the back of Bitcoin and cryptos started from here. 

When did crypto go global?

Cryptocurrency went global by 2014, as more and more cryptocurrencies surfaced. Ethereum was one of these, and it started to grow more and more over the course of time. By 2017 cryptocurrencies were becoming the newest niche of the financial world, and they were widely hailed as the savior of the corrupted financial system. 

Cryptos were being bought and sold on new trading platforms, and hundreds of tokens were being created and had quickly rising values with lots of people opting to buy Kasta token. 

By the end of 2017, Bitcoin had skyrocketed financially from $900 to $20,000, and the entire industry hit a valuation of $600 billion. 

By this time, it had been made clear that cryptocurrency wasn’t going anywhere. And now, some people even believe that in the future it could be possible that it might replace traditional financial methods, although that may be a bit far off yet. 

What exactly is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a form of online currency that uses cryptography as a security feature. A majority of these currencies can operate perfectly smoothly without a central authority such as a bank or governing body. They will operate instead through a ledger to spread power among the community. A cryptocurrency will have a set, defined monetary policy, be it a fixed limit of tokens, or allowing the creation of new tokens based on predetermined rules. 

Cryptocurrency is basically an online currency used for online purchases. Although not every store will accept cryptos, many do, even online casinos are starting to accept them, and do not forget the purchase of online items as well which has recently come into being; i.e. the purchasing of GIFs, memes, tweets, etc. 

How does cryptocurrency work?

So, how does it work? Well, cryptocurrency works through a distributed ledger that holds the transactions, this is known as a blockchain- which you may have heard of before. A blockchain is made of blocks, and each block holds individual transaction information. This information is timestamped and posted to the ledger so that each transaction can be verified by other stakeholders in the blockchain, and it will never be altered. 

For a transaction to be conducted on a blockchain, users have to pay a small fee that assists in the maintenance of the security of the blockchain itself. 

So, if you wanted to send your friend a small amount of Bitcoin, then you would need to create a transaction, using your Bitcoin wallet to do so, and then request to send Bitcoin to your friends’ wallet. You would then need to agree to pay a nominal transaction fee as this happens. 

Once you have requested for a transaction, it will get grouped with other transactions into a block on the blockchain for Bitcoin. This block is verified by ‘miners’ and posted onto the blockchain, then completing the transaction. 

Cryptocurrency was originally used as it allowed you to transfer large amounts of wealth anonymously without the interference of any governing body. In present times, cryptocurrency is even used by some people to take care of routine matters, such as paying bills, and subscriptions. Some even use it to obtain loans online. 

However, a great deal of people will use their cryptos to invest in  business start-ups. It is no surprise that cryptos and innovative ventures often sit together. Digital currency can also be used to travel, as travel sites and airlines often accept cryptos such as Bitcoin.