Cryptocurrency: An Ultimate Guides to Digital Payment

Mahesh Sharma
7 min readMay 26, 2021

What is Cryptocurrency?

These days, the international market is moving toward the digital world, and out of investments to money transfer, everything is becoming digital. Here, the latest and most promising electronic payment system has come into the market, which will be cryptocurrency. In this topic, we will know what precisely cryptocurrency is, what are various types of Cryptocurrencies, its benefits, and pitfalls.

Cryptocurrency, also known as crypto, is a form of internet payment system which can be traded online to purchase services and goods . It is much similar to real world currency, but it does not have any physical look. There are roughly 5000 different kinds of cryptocurrencies, among which Bitcoin and Ethereum will be the favorite ones.

Cryptocurrency is electronic or digital money, which can be transparent, decentralized, and secured by cryptography. The most important feature of cryptocurrency is it is a decentralized money. Decentralized means it isn’t issued from the central authorities, the consumer owns it, and neither government nor the lender controls it. Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, which was released as open-source applications in the year 2009. After the development of bitcoin, several different cryptocurrencies have been produced.

Cryptocurrency has various attributes, such as:

It’s a limitation to how many components may exist, such that bitcoin has 21 million limits. It implements easy verification of transfer of funds with the assistance of hashing algorithms that verify each trade. It is independent of any central authority or a bank. The units can only be inserted after certain requirements are satisfied.

What’s Blockchain?

Blockchain is the technology, which is used by bitcoin or alternative cryptocurrencies. It is a kind of record keeping system that multiple users operate in a decentralized way. When a bitcoin is exchanged over the network, a block of data is created and shared over the entire network. Once this block is verified, it is added with the previous cubes and forms a chain type, hence known as a blockchain.

Advantages of Cryptocurrency

Last several years, cryptocurrencies are being more popular among the public due to their many advantages over paper money. Some of these advantages are provided below:

  1. Fraud-Proof One of the important advantages of cryptocurrency is that it is fraud-proof. When a cryptocurrency is created, all of the consumer’s supported transactions are stored in the public ledger. The identity of coin owners will be maintained encrypted. Hence there’s absolutely no chance for a deceptive trade.

2. User ownership No, any bank or government has any control over it. There’s also no electronic cash system.

3. Straightforward transaction In the standard economy system, for doing any form of business or deal, there is always a lot of transaction fees related that we must cover each transaction. Apart from that, there are also various paper works, broker fees, commissions, etc., and users need to cover. But when we use cryptocurrency, all these items are removed; as for every transaction, there’s absolutely no middle man. Every transaction is performed between one to one inside a secured network. This one-to-one trade makes it easier and more transparent than the conventional one.

4. Confidential Transactions As soon as we perform any transaction in a traditional transaction system with either cash or charge, every transaction is listed in our bank history. It means every transaction information remains with banks. In cryptocurrency, each trade with the recipients will be unique. The data is traded on the grounds of the push concept. This means we’re allowed to share only that information that we want to disclose to the receivers.

5. Instant Settlement The simple use of cryptocurrency is making it popular among individuals. For beginning any transaction, we just require a smart device such as a Mobile phone, internet connection, and instantly we’ll turn into our very own bank to make online payments and transactions.

6. Identity theft In cryptocurrency, it is ensured from the ledger that transactions performed between electronic wallets can calculate the accurate equilibrium. This general public ledger is also known as a “transaction blockchain.” Blockchain technology makes secure digital trades through encryption and ”smart contracts” which make the entity virtually unhackable and immune to fraud.

How does Cryptocurrency Works?

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized systems that work on blockchain technology. A cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange that is encrypted, digital, and decentralized. Unlike other currencies like U.S. Dollar or the Euro, there is no central authority entails that manages and preserves that the value of a cryptocurrency. Rather, handling and maintaining tasks are widely dispersed among cryptocurrency’s users via the net.

The working occurrence of cryptocurrency trade is given below:

One user or sender who would like to send funds to another user starts the transaction. Within this, each trade is represented as a block. And this cube is forwarded over the blockchain network. This block is validated by the users of the chain, and after it’s confirmed as a legitimate trade, a block is added to the chain. Each transaction is encrypted and has a unique pair of keys, and whoever has those pair of keys, he can only own the amount of cryptocurrency.

Note: The aforementioned working of cryptocurrency is explained connected to bitcoin as some cryptocurrencies may differ in functioning, as some don’t use blockchain technology.

What’s Crypto in Cryptocurrency?

Crypto is used for cryptography, and it is a technique of encryption and decryption for secure communication between two parties. The cryptography technology usually uses a computational algorithm like SHA256, a public key, and a private key.

A general bitcoin transaction happens from the below steps:

The very first step is that the user has the trade details, so to whom bitcoin has to be shared and how much. The transaction is passed through the hashing algorithm to validate the transaction. The outcome of hashing algorithm extends into the signature algorithm together with the user’s private secret. The output of the above step is distributed over the network for those people to verify the transaction. The transaction is confirmed using the sender’s public key, and people who affirm it are called minors. After the verification, the bitcoin is added into the blockchain, which can’t be reversed.

Types of Cryptocurrency

Following the development of bitcoin, there are a variety of sorts of cryptocurrencies offered in the marketplace. Below is the listing of popular types of cryptocurrencies:

  1. Bitcoin: In accordance with the studies, there are approximately over 18.5 million bitcoin tokens offered for flow, with a capped limit of 21 million.
  2. Bitcoin Cash: Bitcoin money was released in the year 2017, and it’s one of the most well-known sorts of cryptocurrencies available in the marketplace.
  3. Litecoin: Litecoin is gaining popularity day by day, and it functions the same as bitcoin. It was developed by Charlie Lee(former employee of Google) from the year 2011.
  4. Ethereum: Etherum is heard in precisely the same context as Bitcoin, however it is not a cryptocurrency. Instead, it is an online programmable platform that uses blockchain technology. It helps the developer to develop and operate DAapps inside the computer system. Ethereum can be known as an program shop.
  5. Ripple: Ripple is also a sort of cryptocurrency, but it does not utilize Blockchain technology. It is not for the particular consumer; instead, it mainly works for large businesses or corporations to move a huge sum of money around the world.
  6. Stellar: It’s designed in a manner that each of the financial systems across the world can work together within precisely the exact same network. It allows to create, trade and send all potential digital forms of money, whether it is dollar, pesos, bitcoin, or anything. It doesn’t charge users to utilize its network.
  7. NEO: NEO was formally called Antshares and established in China. Its main goal is towards intelligent contracts, which allow the users to create and execute agreements without between the intermediary.
  8. Cardano: Cardano or ADA is a type of cryptocurrency, which can be used for receiving or sending digital money. It was created by Charles Hoskinson. It’s the only coin that’s available together with the”Scientific doctrine and research-driven approach.” It means that it is examined by scientists and programmers.
  9. IOTA : IOTA stands for “Internet of Things Application”. It had been launched in the year 2016. The most important difference between IOTA and other blockchain technology is that IOTA doesn’t work with blocks and chains; instead, it functions with smart devices online of things.

What’s Cryptocurrency Mining?

Since cryptocurrency works on a decentralized network, which does not have any central authority to confirm the task, anyone in the network may be minor, and to try it, a successful minor gets a new cryptocurrency since the reward.

Minors need to locate a hash, which is a product of a cryptographic function that connects the new block using its predecessor. The minor reward is supplied to the miner who finds the solution to the complex hashing puzzle first. When the minor gets the solution, he could build a block and then add it into the blockchain.

To set-up a mining rig, users want either a GPU or an application-specific integrated circuit.

The Way to buy Cryptocurrencies?

There are two methods to purchase a cryptocurrency, possibly by US dollars or from another cryptocurrency. It means a few cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoins, may be bought using US dollars, while others can be bought using another cryptocurrencies.

To purchase it, the user needs an internet program to include the currency along with the digital wallet. Generally, a user creates an account on an exchange and transfer real money to purchase cryptocurrencies.

Hazards of investing in Cryptocurrency

A number of the valuable characteristics of cryptocurrency also become insecure when investing in it. The three major risks are provided below:

Operates without any government Authority

Since we’ve discussed above, it functions in a decentralized manner and hence does not include any central authority or authorities function within it. This simple fact raises many questions, such that what type of taxes are to be paid for any profit or loss of their resources.

So, this is the principal risk for investing in cryptocurrency. No physical presence As cryptocurrency is a virtual money, and hence there is no physical presence of the. It represents a business like bond or stock nor a tangible asset like Gold. It is not published on papers very similar to other currencies. Consequently, it doesn’t have its basic value but its trading value.

Volatile in Nature

The previous risk factor of cryptocurrency is its explosive nature. The costs of crypto vary quite irregularly, and it may sometimes get reduced or raised by 100 $ within an hour. In contrast, other currencies have a limited variation. As per the present expansion rate, it can be easily seen that cryptocurrency will have a great scope in upcoming years.

But there are also some conflicts that can happen in accepting cryptocurrency as a portion of the market.

It is easily seen that some top cryptocurrencies will play an important part in the future, because they are gaining popularity day-by-day from past years.

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Mahesh Sharma

Hey, I'm Mahesh Sharma, a passionate digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in the field. I'll be sharing topics such as SEO, SMO, PPC/ SEM.