99CRYPTOCOINS

 

What is a crypto-currency?

A crypto-currency is a ‘digital currency’ or 'digital asset' designed to work as a medium of exchange, that uses advanced encryption technology (cryptography) to facilitate private, free, secure, nearly instant, peer to peer transactions globally. Crypto-currencies are not controlled by any government, country, company or organization. The value of a crypto-currency is solely determined by supply and demand as its traders buy and sell the currency on publicly traded exchanges.

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 "Crypto-currency is the solution to the failing existing fiat currency system."

Crypto-currencies made the leap from being an academic concept to reality with the creation of Bitcoin in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. More about the anonymous genuis can be read here. Bitcoin and its derivatives use decentralized control through the use of a block-chain distributed ledger, as opposed to centralized electronic money/centralized banking systems. Since then, numerous crypto-currencies have been created using the block-chain technology. These are frequently called altcoins (alternative coins). Additional technologies for crypto-currencies such as CryptoNote have also emerged in the last 5 years. What will be adopted as a global standard for digital currency still remains to be seen, but it would be safe to assume that it will be an evolved product of the many ongoing crypto-currency experiments out there today (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, etc).

The prices of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies have seen significant gains over the last 12 months, attracting the inevitable general interest from the investor community and general public at large. As of mid 2017 there are over 700 digital currencies floating around, and choosing the right ones can be tricky amidst so much smoke and mirrors. Read on to get some bearings in the world of crypto-currencies.

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