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What Are Cryptocurrencies?

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How-to Guides / Tech Deep Dives

What Are Cryptocurrencies?

ZinariCoin

By ZinariCoin

Created a year ago, last updated a year ago
3 mins read
What Are Cryptocurrencies?

A cryptocurrency is a digital representation of value. It can be used pay your friends for transactions, purchase that new pair of sneakers you have been eyeing up, or buy cinema tickets and buy assets. Since it is virtual, it is able to be sent anywhere in the world.

How is this Different from Banks and Financial Institutions?

You see, when you deposit your money into a bank or financial institution, they control your money. They decide when you can withdraw it, they loan it out and generate interest, and they can seize your money at will.

In decentralized cryptocurrencies, there is no such thing. You, your friends and hundreds of others can act as your personal banks through the open source blockchain. Your laptop or phone connects directly to the blockchain, that means you handle all transactions directly – no middlemen required! To use cryptocurrency, you do not want to enroll in a internet site with an electronic mail cope with and password. You can download a simple apps onto your cellphone, and start transacting immediately.

What is the Origin of the Word "Cryptocurrency?"

The name cryptocurrency is derived from cryptography and currency. With cryptography, we use complex calculations to secure our transactions, making sure that nobody else can interfere with it.

There's no need to go indepth – all applications you use will do all the job(unless you want to learn blockchain development). You won't even know what's going on behind the scenes. It's like trying to learn how the clock works, instead of learning how to use the clock.

Why Should You Use Cryptocurrencies?

Permissionless

No one can stop you from using cryptocurrency. Centralized payment services, on the other hand, can freeze accounts or prevent transactions from being made.

Censorship-resistant

Because of the way the network is designed, it's virtually impossible for hackers or other attackers to shut it down.

A cheap and fast payment method

When you make a transaction to someone at the other side of the world, your money can be with them within seconds – at a fraction of the cost of an international wire transfer.

No one can stop you from using cryptocurrency. Centralized payment services, on the other hand, can freeze accounts or prevent transactions from being made.

A cheap and fast payment method

When you make a transaction to someone at the other side of the world, your money can be with them within seconds – at a fraction of the cost of an international wire transfer.

Who Invented the Blockchain?

Amazingly, nobody knows who invented it. We only know them by their psuedonym - Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi could be a single person, a team of programmers, or if you love conspiracies, a time-traveling alien or secret government agency.
Satoshi published a well-worded 9-page document in 2008, detailing how the system worked. Months later, in 2009, the software itself was released.

Bitcoin became the basis for many cryptocurrencies. Some of them are based on the same software, while others have taken a completely different approach.

Is there a difference between all cryptocurrencies? Yes, there is! Some are faster than others, some are more private, some are more secure, and some are more programmable. Each cryptocurrency is unique in it's own programming and aim, but at the core, is cryptography.

There is a saying in the world of cryptocurrency “Do your own research” (or DYOR). We are not saying this for frivolous reasons. It simply means that you shouldn't take information from one source as truth. Make sure you do your due diligence before investing money in a particular project.

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