It seems that “cryptocurrency” and the “blockchain” have become buzzwords in recent years. Anyone who is looking into becoming an investor seems to be interested in getting a piece of the action. Since you are reading this book, it’s fair to say you too, are interested in getting a piece of the action. As such, we will be looking at the fundamentals of cryptocurrency and the blockchain so that you can gain a much better perspective on this matter. In addition, we’ll be discussing the overall functioning of this technology and what it means to the average individual.
It should be noted that the concept of cryptocurrency was born out of the need to have a means of payment that could go outside of the usual government-controlled systems. The idea was to create a safe and secure means of creating transactions in such a way that users could be certain that each transaction is fully secured.
This is important to note as most transactions, digital or otherwise, don’t always have a secure platform. In fact, regular transactions lend themselves to fraud and illegal activity. In particular, cash economies create vast underground networks that criminals can exploit. Thoughts of drug dealers exchanging suitcases full of cash come to mind.
Consequently, cryptos are meant to work outside of usual central bank control while ensuring full transparency for all users. Nevertheless, critics of cryptos have pointed to the fact that criminals use cryptos to engage in financial transactions as these digital currencies work outside of networks supervised by law enforcement agencies.
This is true of lesser-known crypto. As a matter of fact, some cryptos have been created for this specific purpose. But when you deal with “official” cryptos, that is digital currencies that are fully transparent by the entire internet, so to speak, you know you have the assurance that you are not dealing with criminals. Rather, you are dealing with other folks who want a secure means of conducting business.
