What is Crypto Currency?

Seemingly complex terms

To understand what cryptocurrency is, it must be considered as a currency in its own right.

Few people have not heard of crypto before. The latter is often used but misunderstood.

The novelty of cryptocurrencies has brought up terms, expressions and concepts that may seem complex to many people.

Indeed, these immaterial currencies being very closely linked to the computer field, there has been a very rapid development of new abbreviations, new acronyms sometimes abstruse and for the most part in English. As with the emergence of the web, the phenomenon of cryptocurrency has not been spared.

What is Crypto Currency?

If we had to simplify as much as possible, we could define a cryptocurrency as a digital currency that allows peer-to-peer exchanges by freeing itself from a central bank and made possible by a decentralized computer network.

Comprendre ce qu'est la crypto monnaie

Essential Concepts

To fully understand what cryptocurrency is, it is important to understand the basics. Many words may seem incomprehensible at first glance, but they actually cover relatively simple concepts.

To help you, we have listed and defined a series of words to understand for a good understanding of this theme.

Bitcoin

Blockchain

Miners - Mining

Smart contract

Ethereum

Cryptocurrency

Lightning Network

EOS

IOTA

What is cryptocurrency used for?

First, the investment potential seems to be the main argument justifying the usefulness of cryptocurrencies.

Indeed, what seems to contribute to the growing popularity of Bitcoin and its avatars is above all the news headlines of certain media raving about the significant capital gains that investors from the first hour.

Rightly, people who bought even just one bitcoin on February 9, 2011, the date on which bitcoin reached the symbolic value of $1, saw the value of their capital multiplied by 68,513 on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 ( record price of bitcoin in dollars). However, it will have taken a little more than 10 years to cover this ascent..

In other words, the long-term investment potential of active cryptos is well established.

graphique record cours bitcoin en dollars BTC/USD

Bitcoin price record

If investing in cryptocurrencies is one reason for some, breaking free from a bank to trade may be another.

Anonymity can also be a source of motivation, but this remains marginal in our opinion. Because even if the transactions carried out in the crypto world are pseudonymous, they can be traced. However, there are currencies like Monero (XMR) which allows anonymous and confidential transactions.

« Bitcoin will do to banks what email did to the postal industry. »

Rick Falkvinge

Computer entrepreneur and founder of the Swedish Pirate Party

« Mandating the acceptance of a specific cryptocurrency for businesses is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space. »

Vitalik Buterin

Co-founder of Ethereum