Cryptocurrency is the future! With the rush around NFTs slowing down & the British economy slipping into a deep recession, it’s time to learn about the technology of the future.

Crypto is a digital currency that lives on a blockchain (a digital ledger) & claims to be decentralised. This means that, unlike other currencies, no single organisation can manipulate its value or distribution.

Bitcoin got its infamous start in 2008 when an “individual” named Satoshi Nakamoto invented it. Though the first Cryptocurrency, eCash, was actually invented in 1990 by a company called DigiCash. The concept and company were created by cryptographer David Chaum, who in 1983 published a paper titled “Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments.”

By the time Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it is heavily scrutinised & born to be a major disruptor of the finance world, allowing new wealth to be created & new legacies to be born. One of the ideas behind crypto was to allow more people access to financial tools and give them a friendlier option than traditional institutions. As with any new technology, crypto has been plagued by rumours, conspiracies, mysteries and controversy.

One of the main ones is the identity of the infamous Satoshi Nakamoto. More than 14 years later, this is still a huge mystery. There are rumours that Satoshi is an alias for either a collection of people – likely a group of technological genii that were in the inner circle of crypto in the early stages, a Japanese engineer named Dorian Nakamoto or, much more sinister, a shadow government organisation. Satoshi wrote the first white paper on Bitcoin, invented the token & developed the first blockchain – so whoever they are, they can be seen as the father of what Cryptocurrency is today.

Bitcoin, like many other cryptocurrencies, can be mined, though there will always be a fixed number of available tokens in play & mining them takes a significant amount of computer power & will become more challenging & energy-intensive over time, with the rewards lessening as time goes on. The rules of engagement and access to the currency vary depending on the token. Outside of mining, the other way to get your hands on some crypto is to purchase it on a marketplace like Binance or Coinbase.

It wouldn’t be fair to discuss crypto without mentioning the blockchain giant Ethereum. Built to be the ultimate rival of Bitcoin, Ethereum has become a staple in the crypto community. Used for purchasing NFTs, hosting Play2Earn games, creating secure digital technologies & more. It’s designed to be decentralised, scalable & programmable. With features like smart contracts, this blockchain technology has many practical uses for the real world across finance, gaming, advertising & supply-chain management. One major drawback of this crypto is the price, it’s one of the most expensive, not just to buy but to use. More on this later in the series.

If you’ve heard of Ethereum before, you may have heard of the coming upgrades (ETH2), scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, it promises to be cheaper, more scalable & easier to use. As of last year, both ETH & ETH2 blockchains exist side by side but will eventually merge & all tokens will be automatically migrated.

This blog is just the first in a series of themed Cryptocurrency posts, stay tuned to hear more about NFTs, investing in crypto, missing tokens, CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), Play2Earn games and more.