How to Learn More About Crypto
Crypto is the short hand for cryptocurrency, a form of digital currency that is underpinned by blockchain technology. It first came to prominence through the invention of Bitcoin back in 2008. Which, to this day, remains the most popular digital currency. Today we are going to look briefly but rigidly at cryptocurrency, its benefits and its current applications across various industries. As it is a digital currency, there are no physical coins that represent your wallet or your cryptocurrency. Instead, it is stored in a digital wallet which is unique to yourself. What sets cryptocurrency aside from fiat currencies such as the US Dollar or Great British Pound is that it isn’t run through a main institution such as the Bank of England or Federal Reserve, instead it is decentralised.
A brief introduction
Also when it comes to the US Dollar for example, this is mainly printed by the Federal Reserve, which is a government owned institution. Cryptocurrencies are not like that in the fact that Bitcoin for example is digitally mined. Let’s at Person A wants to send some Bitcoin to Person B, for that transaction to take place, it requires other computers on the network to work out and facilitate this, and the reward for doing so is in fact currency itself. And then you have both individuals and larger organisations that then sell these in bulk or in fractional amounts.
Cryptocurrency itself has a lot of applications in many different industries. For example, there are many different crypto betting sites who gain an advantage over their fiat-based competitors due to them exclusively only letting players at their casino deposit and withdraw using cryptocurrency. The reason that crypto is beneficial for this particular application is that it makes the casino operators much more transparent and accountable thus reassuring the players at the crypto casino that they are being treated fairly. Likewise it also has the same benefits when it comes to online sports betting using cryptocurrencies.
It also has a lot of benefits when it comes to privacy. For example if you make a purchase online using traditional currency, it requires all of your personal information such as name, address, postcode and then all of the details of the card before you can even make the purchase. This however is not the case when it comes to crypto. It requires no details from you whatsoever, all you need to know is the wallet ID of the person that you’re sending it to and the payment is sent instantly.
What crypto and the blockchain does is remove the need for legacy intermediaries such as banks and traditional financial institutions. The legacy intermediaries always take a cut from traditional transaction methods, and these fees are not cheap. The brave new world of crypto and the blockchain has introduced a system where fees are now so low, they are negligible, and almost non existent by the casual observer.
In summary
If you want to know more about the technical side of cryptocurrency there are plenty of resources out there. It does take a bit of time to get your head around how blockchain works and how it is an entirely digital currency which is different to anything that had ever preceded it before. However, the future looks very promising when it comes to crypto. Crypto is the brave new world and, as an analogy, can be compared to the invention and uptake of the internal combustion engine taking over from horse power. As such,we can expect to see it be integrated into many other industries in the future as the technology advances and evolves.