In a world of ever-growing technology, the impact it produces varies on the mass consumers. Some are slowly evolving while others could change the economic landscape. Have you ever heard of the term “disruptive technologies”? If you have not, then this means a product or process that could transform the current landscape into a new one.
Among these is the “cryptocurrency” which can change the system of exchanging resources. The normal currency for ages has been physical money but this innovation will present a new form of producing and distributing it. If you are still confused about all this jargon, then read further and we will guide you to understand this topic more. After all, currency is a huge part of our everyday lives and this information will surely benefit you.
You will know what cryptocurrency means, its history, current uses, and the future that awaits it. You may be also wondering how this can be a disruptive technology, so we will go through the necessary information and present it to you in a digestible way.
After living with this currency for so long, the advent of the internet now made another discovery called "digital cash", where instead of having had the money physically, we now rely on online wallets that store your money digitally so you can purchase through sites without the need to handle physical transactions.
Finally, we have cryptocurrency, a new evolution to our system of currency, with a few key differences of how it runs and as to why it became more popular today.
Cryptocurrency is a completely digital currency that runs in something called the blockchain, where every single transaction is being tracked and monitored for everyone else to see. This blockchain also runs in multiple systems, making it impossible to alter as it will require a majority of these multiple systems, which can range in the thousands, to all agree that this said transaction took place legitimately.
Through this decentralization: making multiple systems reliable to keep track of transactions, there is now no worry about the money losing its value through economic factors, as normally, a country's currency goes down with the economy that it stands with. It also means that corruption is virtually impossible , as accessing this many systems will fail through realistic means.
Cryptocurrency is also lightning fast since it is completely digital, every transaction happens in an instant. There are no business days that it does not operate on, or any buffer to receive the money. It is all in an instant, which makes it an ideal way for payments across the globe.
With this instantaneousness also comes legitimacy, as the transactions often happen through the end of the sender, where once it gets sent, it cannot be returned. There is virtually no chance of fraud as once the money is sent, there is no chance to bring it back unless if the receiver agrees to send it back.
Since cryptocurrency runs digitally, it also doesn't have a chance for manipulation. Except for a few cryptocurrencies that are made to scam people, the leading cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are all completely run by the transactions within their systems: more people buy the coin, the price goes up, and so on. There's no third party that can disrupt the price or potential schemes happening within the inner workings of the coin as most of these are open-source, meaning you know exactly how everything is running and how it all operates.
A few other digital money exchange systems similar to cryptocurrency were launched over the years, but Bitcoin is the first true form of cryptocurrency. In 2008, a year before its release, a white paper entitled 'Bitcoin - A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System' was published by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the founder of Bitcoin. Bitcoin was officially released in 2009.
Over the years, Bitcoin's value steadily rose. Major merchants like WordPress, Newegg.com, Expedia, Microsoft, and Tesla also started accepting payments in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin had a few crashes over time. In 2011, its value crashed due to criminals stealing Bitcoins. In April of 2013, Mt. Gox, the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, crashed due to the intense volume of trading. Hackers took advantage of this vulnerability and prices plummeted. In December of the same year, China banned Bitcoin causing it to lose 50% of its value overnight.
2017 was one of Bitcoin's most successful years. It reached near $20,000 and continued to grow. However, by December of that year, investors claimed their money and the price came crashing once more. Throughout 2018, Bitcoin remained at the low. It did, however, rise once more in value after.
In April of 2021, Bitcoin had reached its all-time high of almost $65,000.
Ultimately, we now have cryptocurrency, and people from all over the world are slowly learning to use it in several ways. Cryptocurrencies may still be unfamiliar in some circles, but in reality, approximately 300 million people now use crypto worldwide and over 18,000 companies are accepting crypto as a mode of payment (TripleA, 2021). According to Lielacher (2021), below are some of the most significant uses of cryptocurrency presently:
Normally, people would go to malls when they need to buy something. They would go to the physical branch of the bank to withdraw money. They will need cash to travel. They will need to wait for weeks for the processing of transactions. And, they will need to pay cash or use a card to access the services of companies. But now, cryptocurrency has altered all of these customs. Some industries and business companies already started to change their operations and adapted to the changes that are brought by cryptocurrency.
