What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital asset created using the technology called the blockchain. Blockchain is a decentralized technology that runs and records transactions across many computers which prevent the system from changing, hacking or cheating. The currency can also be exchanged online for products and services as a digital or virtual currency. There is no physical form for cryptocurrencies and they are available only as digital entries in a distributed register, in compliance with complex encryption regulations. The use of private and public keys allows the transmission of cryptocurrencies straight between two parties. These transactions can be carried out with minimal transaction charges that allow users to escape high charges from conventional financial institutions.

A cryptocurrency’s most essential feature is that it does not have any central control. That means it is not regulated by any central authority or in other word exist beyond the jurisdiction of central authorities and governments. It was designed to be free of government oversight or interference. Instead, a peer-by-peer Internet protocol controls the cryptocurrency economy.

They were initially conceived as an alternative method of payment for online transactions. Cryptocurrencies, however, are still not generally adopted by companies and customers and are at present too unpredictable to be accepted as payment methods. Cryptocurrencies are significantly different from typical fiat currencies. However, like any other commodity, you can still buy and sell them.

It’s not a new idea for having a digital currency. As a theoretical structure, cryptocurrency existed long before the first digital alternative currencies began to develop. Although Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency created, previous attempts had been made to build online currencies with encrypted ledgers. Several developers and innovators had the concept of money to exist in the digital world.

In 2008 a white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was written by somebody named Satoshi Nakamoto, explaining the functionality of the Bitcoin blockchain network. The Nakamoto ‘s identity has always been a secret. Different research efforts have been made to know who this person is and whether they have used a pen name; some even suggest that it’s a pen name representing several individuals. In 2009 Bitcoin was developed as the first decentralized cryptocurrency and the first Bitcoin transaction was made on 12 January 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. 10 BTC was forwarded to a coder called Hal Finney.

Bitcoin is a digital or virtual currency that was established in 2009 using peer-to-peer technology to make instant payments easier by digital or virtual currencies. The birthday of Bitcoin is January 3, 2009, when the first BTC 50 coins have been mined in the genesis block. It’s electronic cash. You may use it to purchase goods and services, although many companies do not yet embrace Bitcoin and some countries have completely prohibited it. The main difference between Bitcoin and traditional currencies is its decentralization, which is that no bank or any country controls transactions.

Ethereum is a decentralized system which enables its users on its platform to develop and create smart contracts and decentralized applications (apps). Ethereum (ETH) is an internal trade unit and “fuel,” which was launched in 2015 for operating a blockchain platform. Ethereum is developed by Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian-Russian programmer. Ethereum utilizes better technology than Bitcoin for blockchain. Smart contracts are computer protocols which facilitate, verify or implement some kind of agreement negotiation and performance. Ethereum is designing a set of updates called Ethereum 2.0 with the aims to enhance Ethereum functionality and performance in various ways. Ethereum 2.0 is the next upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, also known as Eth2 or ‘Serenity’

Litecoin was introduced in 2011 as an alternative to bitcoin. It was developed by Charlie Lee, an MIT graduate and a former engineer from Google. Litecoin is one of the most popular bitcoin competitors. Just like other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin is an open-source, fully decentralized global payment network. Like Bitcoin, mining is based on a mechanism of PoW proof of work but a second hashing algorithm is used rather than SHA-256. The growth of the supply of Litecoin is decentralized by the Litecoin Protocol, which assigns Litecoin participants the creation of new coins. Litecoins are restricted to a total of 84 million but not all coins are still produced.

In 2012 Ripple was launched as both a cryptocurrency and a digital financial transactions payment network. This is a worldwide settlement network designed to create a fast, safe and cost-effective money transfer method. XRP is the token used to describe the Ripple network value transition. However, Ripple transactions are not restricted to XRP. Fiat currencies such as dollars, euros, pounds, and yen also support Ripple. Ripple also supports other coins such as Bitcoin and also certain interest indexes such as frequent flyer miles or gold. All of 100 billion coins XPR have already been issued so there is no emission and does not have mining.

The EOS ecosystem contains two key elements: the tokens EOS and EOS.IO. EOS is a famous cryptocurrency that utilizes the EOSIO protocol which is fast and free to transfer. It is used for management and allows users and developers to create the necessary resources for EOS applications. It also permits the creation of smart contracts that enable developers to release dApps. EOS ‘goal is to create a blockchain network that can process thousands of transactions per second without transaction costs on-chain. EOS.IO uses a delegated proof of stake and a role-based authorization concept, allowing flexibility to make instantaneous decisions at high levels, including rollback, freezing, and fixing bugs for broken applications, with a majority of stakeholders.

Tether (USDT) is a stable cryptocurrency operated by a Hong Kong-based company called Tether. Tether is an innovation in the blockchain field that allowed any fiat currency to be translated into a related cryptocurrency. The Tether concept was to build a secure cryptocurrency that could be used as digital dollars. Or “stable coins” It’s a hybrid stable coin with a value that is linked to the US dollar and another fiat. This means 1 USDT trading on exchanges at exactly US$ 1.00. The Omni layer Protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain makes it possible to work together as a token on the blockchain. This platform is used for different digital assets that are attached to the blockchain.

Bitcoin Cash is a Bitcoin Fork crypto-currency created in August 2017. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was developed to improve the existing Bitcoin Network. Its technology is somewhat similar to Bitcoin, with the same number of coins — 21 million. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created on August 1, 2017, in the 478558 blocks of Bitcoin Blockchain. Anyone who owns Bitcoin at the time of the fork has become the owner of the same crypto-size Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash increases block size so you can process additional transactions. Bitcoin Cash’s main purpose is to be used as a payment system. That means people can submit and receive funds just like the first Bitcoin consumer. Nevertheless, the technology of Bitcoin Cash allows quicker transaction times and lower transaction costs!

TRON is one of the world’s largest blockchain operating systems founded by a non-profit organization called the Tron Foundation in Singapore. It is an open-source decentralized blockchain protocol for the digital entertainment industry to create a free, globally based entertaining digital content platform with distributed storage technology, which enables digital content to be exchanged quickly and cost-effectively. TRON supports different types of blockchain networks and Smart Contract Systems, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Qtum, etc. It also offers multi-protocol infrastructure for the creation of entertainment applications and enables users to benefit from smart multi-protocol networks. The Tron network uses its tronix (TRX) cryptocurrency. On exchanges such as Liqui and Binance etc , Tronix can be obtained by trading for other cryptocurrencies such as ETH and BTC. You will not only exchange the content with anyone using the Tron cryptocurrency platform, but you are paid for the information and data you create as a content creator.

The first peer-reviewed blockchain in the world is Cardano. It is a decentralized public blockchain and cryptocurrency that can be used for sending and receiving virtual money. Cardano represents the future of currency, allowing quick, safe and direct transactions by using cryptography. The project Cardano began in 2015. Input-Output Hong Kong (IOHK) is the company behind its development and is managed by BitShares and Ethereum’s co-founder Charles Hoskinson. One of the main factors that distinguish Cardano is it is the first blockchain project driven by scientific study and science theory. The native cryptocurrency token of Cardano is ADA and can be used for designing and implementing smart contracts, applications and more.

Monero (XMR) is an anonymous and decentralized open-source cryptocurrency. It’s entirely a digital form of money, like Bitcoin. It is not possible to detect or trace the transactions on the Monero blockchain. To issue new coins and to encourage the miner to safeguard the network and to validate the transactions., Monero uses a proof Work mechanism. Anyone can submit or transmit any transactions, but the source, number or destination cannot be specified by any outside observer. funds are transferred between randomly generated addresses and mixed with other translations before reaching the recipient. Furthermore, ring signatures of user groups are used to prevent the real sender from being determined. The CryptoNight PoW algorithm is used to mine the Monero cryptocurrency.

Tezos is a cryptocurrency and a world’s first self-evolving multi-purpose blockchain decentralized computing platform Designed for safety, open involvement and upgradeability which is supported by a regional validator, researcher and builders network. Tezos is like Ethereum, a smart contract platform which supports dApps However, Tezos has certain unique characteristics that make it different from Ethereum. The most notable feature is the on-chain network governance that permits XTZ holders to vote on the future direction of the network. Tezos also contains a collective decision-making mechanism. Holders of tezos token votes on Developments of the pending protocol. Tezos does not focus on tez mining. Token holders are paid then for taking part in the process of proof of stake mechanism. The block creation procedure of Tezos is called “baking” Tezo holders who Stak their tokens can be rewarded with Tezos tokens for the creation and verification of blocks. By joining the Tezos network through a delegation you can earn a passive income.

Dogecoin is an anonymous decentralized, peer to peer, fast transactions cryptocurrency. Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin on 6 Dec. 2013 as a fun currency. Dogecoin (DOGE) was influenced by a famous meme but was gradually turned into a completely functioning coin. Dogecoin is a decentralized platform for trading and exchanging values of the Doges token (DOGE). Much like Bitcoin, Dogecoin can be secretly sent and obtained worldwide. It is designed to work safely and easily. Although Dogecoin is based on the Script protocol of Litecoin, its blocking time is only one minute compared to 2.5 minutes of Litecoin. Dogecoin thus provides quicker transactions and confirmations. This applies to social media and forums, for example, Reddit, to send dogecoins to users who have given a useful reply or a useful contribution to the discussion.

Stellar is a decentralized open-source payment protocol that enables quick and cross-border transactions among any pair of currencies. Stellar unites the global financial system in the world so that money flows between banks, corporations and individuals easily and economically. The native cryptocurrency of Stellar is called the lumens and is indicated by the XLM symbol. A non-profit organization called Stellar.org runs Stellar which was established by Jed McCaleb, one of the co-founders of ripple cryptocurrency.

The NEO (formerly Antshares) was established in 2014 by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang as an open-source decentralized application platform. It’s a blockchain-based platform which supports digital assets and smart contracts. It also facilitates various assets’ open commercialization, recognition and digitalization. It deployed several tokens on it. Nash Exchange (NEX) and Gas (GAS) are top examples of NEO tokens. The NEO blockchain is based on the NEO token which creates GAS tokens, which is not divisible. The network is based upon proof of stake decentralized Byzantine fault-tolerant (dBFT), which can support up to 10,000 transactions per second. The Genesis Block has produced a minimum of 100 million NEOs. The remaining 50,000,000,000 NEO was sold to early investors and the remaining fifty million NEOs is locked into a smart contract. The NEO development team uses 15 million NEO tokens each year to finance long-term development goals. You can get a NEO-based token GAS by simply holding NEOs. You only have to make a NEO wallet, buy a NEO from an exchange, and send your NEO coins to your NEO wallet. All you need to do is build a native NEU wallet, buy NEU from an exchange and transfer your native NEU coins to your account. The gas token will be is rewarded for staking the network every day.

Dash is a cryptocurrency which is open source. It is an altcoin bifurcated by the Bitcoin protocol. Dash is a derivative of Litecoin, which is a Bitcoin derivative and was created in January 2014 by Evan Duffield. It was initially known as Darkcoin but was later rebranded in March 2015 as Dash. A mix of miners and master nodes is used for validating transactions. A unique aspect of Dash is that it has master nodes that stake at least 1000 DASH and can validate transactions instantly. The principal difference between Dash and Bitcoin is in their mining coin algorithm. Dash uses X11 algorithm, a variation of the Stake Proof algorithm. This operates on a philosophy of self-governance and self-financing. Contrary to Bitcoin, Dash ‘s network will finance itself to boost DASH infrastructure further. Use of these three features: Masternodes, PrivateSend, and InstantSend, Dash can be used to make transactions more private and quicker. Only validation by the master node, excluding miners, transaction speed can be increased.

After reading this article, you should know more about the most popular cryptocurrencies and the different forms of cryptocurrency available. Hope this facilitates you to begin further research and make your view of each one of them in a much better position. I would love to hear all about it. What’s the one you prefer? And what do you think about cryptocurrency? Let me know! Don’t hesitate to leave a comment down beneath before you leave.