In other words Crypto + Currency.

Using this literal breakdown, the word crypto comes from “cryptography”. Cryptography uses a technique called encryption to conceal messages using algorithms.

Encryption is nothing new. The first recorded use of cryptography is in the year 1900 BC. We’ve been hiding messages from each other for at least 4 thousand years.

Today encryption is defined as “the process of encoding a message so that it can only be read by the sender and the intended recipient”. In other words, as secret as possible. Whether an encrypted message is kept a secret is up to the owner. An encrypted message can only be decrypted by using the right key.

We all use encryption many times a day. It’s used to keep internet interactions secure. Using a particular type of encryption technology called SSL allows you to interact safely and securely with your bank online and other websites. We’re using encryption right now.

Let’s agree that a currency is “a form of money”. Like the Dollar, the Pound and the Yen.

All currencies must have these characteristics:

1. A Medium of Exchange (buy things with it)
2. Fungible and Divisible (break it into smaller interchangeable units)
3. A Unit of Account (keep track of it)

So in short, cryptocurrencies are a new type of digital currency. They use encryption in order to keep them safe and secure. 

All cryptocurrencies have a value (cost per unit) and can be bought, sold and traded.

Some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin function as digital money. Others were developed to secure data, distribute video, provide storage and to prove ownership.

Bitcoin is the biggest and best known cryptocurrency, but there are thousands more.

You’ll hear cryptocurrencies referred to as cryptos, coins, or tokens. There are slight differences to these terms, but they tend to be used interchangeably. We’ll refer to them mostly as cryptocurrencies or cryptos for short.

The Advantages of Cryptocurrencies

In many ways cryptocurrencies represent a technological improvement over today’s fiat currencies (government issued money) and this new asset class holds enormous potential as a result. These are the main advantages of cryptocurrencies:

Decentralized

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, so they don’t depend on a bank, a company or even a country to process their transactions. Cryptos are independent from all of this, which is good because central authorities get into trouble occasionally by manipulating markets, committing fraud or even going out of business. Because of decentralization, cryptocurrencies avoid manipulation, editing and censorship.

Fast

Transactions are able to be processed 24×7, 365 days a year, so you won’t have to wait 24 hours for a deposit to clear or 2 to 3 days for a wire transfer to hit your account. It all happens in near real time with cryptocurrencies. 

Cryptocurrencies can also process transactions very quickly, some at speeds similar to credit cards networks like Visa or Mastercard. Although not all cryptocurrencies are equal in this way (some are still fairly slow), they’re all working on improving their transaction speed and there are proven ways to do this now. It’s just a matter of time until they can all transact at high speeds.

Cost Effective

Cryptocurrencies are efficient as they’re peer-to-peer, so they do not need to go through a bank or middle man in order to process a transaction. There are fees to verify and process transactions, but with the exception of Ethereum gas fees, crypto tends to be much less than the costs of using the traditional banking system.

Deflationary

Many cryptocurrencies restrict the amount of coins that they will ever produce, which is very different from traditional (fiat) currencies. As we are seeing today, when countries print a lot of new money, it tends to decrease the buying power of their currencies over time. We’re seeing this today in higher prices for things, such as houses, cars, and even food. The value of non cash investments are all increasing as well, just look at the rising prices of gold, silver, collectibles, and artworks.

Bitcoin and many other cryptos are actually deflationary. Bitcoin‘s supply is so tightly controlled that the total amount that will ever exist is limited to 21 million. The result is very likely to be that BTC and other deflationary cryptos will go up in value compared to fiat currencies where supply is constantly expanding.

Crypto Offers a Platform for Building Other Things.

Cryptocurrencies are not only digital money, they’re often platforms for building new technologies on top of. This can be confusing and we’ll explain more about this later on, but for now just understand that cryptos can be used to build all kinds of new things like a fully decentralized Youtube (video serving), Dropbox (file serving), or financial services (loans and other banking functions). 

One of the uses that got a lot of attention recently is NFTs. An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token meaning each one is unique and it can’t be divided or copied. Because of this, NFTs are an excellent way to represent assets like art, collectibles, and other rare one-of-a-kind items. This has far-reaching implications in visual art, music, and gaming, with more use cases emerging by the day. 

Why should you care if a cryptocurrency is also used as a platform to build other things? Because the use of a platform also drives the demand for the crypto. For example, people buying NFTs drive up usage of the Ethereum network (as that’s what they’re typically built on), which in turn drives up demand for ETH (the cryptocurrency that Ethereum uses for transactions). After all, it was built with smart contracts and other uses in mind. So usage of things like NFTs can in turn drive up the price of ETH.

Increasing crypto adoption looks promising – for both investors and users.

More and more companies are getting on board. Amazon looks like it might accept Bitcoin directly by 2022.

Paypal already allows its customers to buy, and hold cryptocurrencies (with limitations on their use).

Trading platforms like Robinhood, Gemini, and Coinbase have gone all in.

Central banks and governments are working on releasing their own digital cryptocurrencies (CBDCs). 

Cryptocurrencies are Built on a Few Common Concepts.

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies, many of which work differently. But all of them are share these common concepts:

Digital

There’s no such thing as an actual Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

It’s all just code.

Cryptocurrencies do not exist in any physical sense. Unlike dollar bills or gold bullion, these are  exclusively digital assets that exist solely on the blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are essentially online accounts that can be accessed by cell phone or computer. 

Decentralized

Thousands of “nodes” located around the world maintain and sync copies of the Bitcoin blockchain.

More nodes means more decentralization and that in turn means greater  security.

One of the key technologies behind crypto technology is decentralization. A record of every transaction is stored and visible on a decentralized or distributed ledger. So unlike a central bank, a copy of the ledger exists across thousands of computers around the world simultaneously.

Simply put, decentralization makes censorship and manipulation almost impossible because no one can influence or update enough of the ledger copies at the same time.

Decentralized ledger technology is built on a software protocol known as – you guessed it – the blockchain. Because the blockchain is a software protocol that follows specific predefined rules, it replaces the need for trust in a 3rd party or central authority. This in turn reduces any risk that they may be corrupt.

Note: Almost all cryptocurrencies use decentralization to provide a secure and permissionless user experience. However, some blockchains are much more centralized than others. Being more centralized typically allows decisions to be made more quickly, but it comes as a cost to the end users who relinquish their control.

Ripple (XRP) for example uses something called gateways, a series of private blockchains, to improve the speed of traditional banking.

Direct

With crypto, only an owner has the ability to spend or transfer their coins or tokens to another crypto wallet, no matter where on the planet the recipient is.

Also known as Peer-to-peer.

You can directly transfer to or receive crypto from another person. There’s no central authority to go through because the blockchain replaces the need for it. No middlemen to grant or deny approval or charge an extra fee. The people involved have control over what happens. Transactions are considered “trustless” because they are secured by the blockchain, not other people you have to trust.

Some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin function as digital money. Others like Ethereum exist to do all kinds of different things, like securing data, distributing video, providing storage and proving ownership of digital assets.

It’s the combination of technology + currency, which opens up so many possibilities.

In other words, how cryptocurrencies work is what makes them so valuable.

So far we’ve covered these core concepts:

• Cryptocurrencies exist as digital ledgers built on blockchain technology.
• Blockchains keep permanent and uneditable records of ownership for each cryptocurrency.
• Ownership of crypto means having the permission to send a specific amount of it to someone else.
• Anyone with an internet connection and a smartphone or computer can participate.
• Blockchains are publicly visible (with the exception of centralized or privacy-focussed blockchains).
• Decentralized blockchains can’t be censored or edited.
• A few cryptocurrencies use centralized blockchains to increase speed efficiency and to maintain control.