What is Cryptocurrency?

When we talk about cryptocurrencies, we are necessarily talking about three characteristics that define a cryptocurrency: digital money, registered in a chain of blocks and secured under cryptography. We cannot confuse cryptocurrencies with the electronic money that we have been using when paying with credit cards or in online wallets such as Paypal.

Like ordinary money (bills and coins), cryptocurrencies arrived to be able to be used as a means of payment but in a digital way. With the arrival of Bitcoin, the aim is to change the paradigm of the economic system controlled by government entities. and manage to create a global decentralized currency, or at least that was the idea of ​​its creator Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, the truth is that cryptocurrencies have received great popularity in recent years, and all due to the great returns that have been generated in its revaluation.

So far, it is estimated that at least 3000 cryptocurrencies and tokens have been created, some of them with characteristics that make them very particular, with the arrival of Ethereum and the development of smart contracts, cryptocurrencies opened up endless possibilities since according to experts in the future many things will be controlled through smart contracts and decentralized applications.

In conclusion, cryptocurrencies were born to supplant cash and make way for the digitization of the global economic environment, for now, they are only seen as an investment asset in the future, but with the security offered by cryptography and the immutability offered by the blockchain many things can be created through smart contracts.