Today, in this article, we will talk about cryptocurrency, or as some people call it, just crypto. So, what is crypto? Crypto or cryptocurrency is a digital currency with no physical form; it doesn’t exist as paper notes or coins, like our regular currencies. The concept of crypto was invented by an unknown person, popularly known as Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2008, and it was launched in 2009 by the public. Satoshi Nakamoto named the first crypto Bitcoin, and the smallest unit of a Bitcoin was called by the name of Satoshi himself (or herself, as nobody really knows who this person is). Now, let’s get into more detail to understand the central concept of crypto and how it works. But before that, let us first understand why crypto was invented. What were the reasons behind Satoshi’s invention of crypto, and why he or she thought that regular currencies like the dollar, euro, etc., are not enough in this twenty-first century? Without further ado, let’s get started.
Why does today’s world need cryptocurrencies?
The reason behind crypto's invention was our regular currencies' shortcomings. As Satoshi Nakamoto explained in his/her concept, the primary problem with our paper currency is authoritative control. All the paper currencies are controlled by governments or central banks in some way, and that’s how it basically works. Governments or central banks worldwide have controls on how many currencies will be printed and released in the market for transactions. That simply means if a particular government wants, they can print billions of currency notes at their will. And governments do precisely that – they print money control how much money will be published and when it will be printed.What problems come after that is the devaluation of the currency and inflation. Think this way: why have precious metals and stones like gold and diamond never get devalued and have always remained one of the most reliable transaction mediums since the history of mankind. At the same time, no single currency made by man ever existed for more than a few hundred years? Because no government can create gold or diamond at will, those have to be mined from the deep of the earth – and most importantly, the amount of gold and diamond are limited. One day, will come when the last gram of gold and the last piece of a diamond will be lifted from the earth, and there will be none after that. This scarcity of gold and diamond and the human inability to create them artificiallyade them a more reliable transaction medium than any regular currency.
Crypto or bitcoin works similarly, and the only difference is that it has no physical existence – it exists only in Blockchain, the crypto ledger. Since the very first day, Bitcoin has a fixed amount of 21 million, and up to that exact amount, it can be mined ever – no more after that. That means once the last coin of the total 21 million Bitcoins gets mined, you cannot get another unless anybody sells to you from his wallet. So, theoretically, it can never be devalued until one person exists who wants to get some Bitcoins. Just like gold, its value will never decrease if there is demand. Satoshi Nakamoto realized this and conceptualized the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, that will work the same way precious metals and stones work – but in a digital form as the currency of this digital era.
Crypto works within the technology named Blockchain, which is a digital distributed ledger. Blockchain is a decentralized system, so it’s free from any sort of control of any government or bank. Nobody controls Blockchain; hence, nobody controls cryptocurrencies, and it works entirely on the internet. That makes it universally accepted without the barrier of any geopolitical border. If all this sounds interesting, you should sign up for some top crypto exchanges like Meta and start your crypto journey today.
