If you’ve been paying even a bit of attention to financial news over the past five or six years the odds are pretty good you’ve heard about cryptocurrency – especially bitcoin.
And while there may still be a handful of people that talk about cryptocurrency as though it’s a fad, set to fizzle out anytime, that’s definitely not the general consensus in the world as we know it now.
In fact, most people talking about cryptocurrency today recognize it as a revolutionary new technology that has the potential to change the way the entire world works. Bitcoin can and does already affect our business world, our financial system, and even the way money operates– so it’s important to understand exactly what it is, and why it matters.
If you’re new to cryptocurrency, this guide is the place you want to be.
Let’s get into it!
What is Cryptocurrency?
In the simplest of terms, cryptocurrencies are a digital form of money that can be exchanged for goods and services like traditional “fiat” money – with just a few differences.
Always paired with a “backbone” technology called blockchain (essentially a decentralized system spread across computers all over the world) cryptocurrencies are provided as a form of payment for those that complete transactions on the blockchain register.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is just one of more than 6700+ cryptocurrency options on the market today (as of early 2021), but it is by far the most popular and certainly the most successful.
Originally released in January 2009 by a mysterious (and still anonymous) individual or organization calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin really breathed life into the legitimacy of both blockchain and cryptocurrency – changing a great deal of the financial sector along the way.
While there are no official physical bitcoins (only balances capped on a public ledger that everyone has totally transparent access to), digital coins are doled out to people that “mine” the blockchain ledger underlying this technology.
When transactions are verified (using a tremendous amount of computing power, usually powered by graphics cards and powerful PCs) bitcoin is released from the finite supply. Bitcoin can also be purchased from bitcoin exchanges, gifted to you from other individuals, or transferred to you as a payment for goods and services.
As of February 2021 a single bitcoin was valued at a near record high of $49,129.80.
Why is Crypto So Important?
Crypto isn’t just another type of currency. It could become the currency used worldwide. In fact, a lot of people (including the world’s richest man, Elon Musk) are operating under the theory that bitcoin could legitimately become the future of money – a digital gold, if you will – and may do so sooner rather than later.
A big part of the cryptocurrency promise (something that attracts a lot of new to cryptocurrency people to bitcoin in specific) is that should the world shift to this decentralized source of “money,” central banks would lose all influence, reducing their impact on the world but also “freeing” the global population in a way not possible with centralized banking as it exists today.
On top of that, a lot of cryptocurrency believers are only partially interested in things like bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but instead recognize blockchain as the “next big thing” for humanity to develop.
Thanks to the peer-to-peer, totally transparent, incredibly secure (and anonymous) ledger that blockchain produces, the potential for this decentralized processing and recording platform could totally overhaul how our business and financial worlds operate.
Blockchain also has the potential to become the most powerful form of encryption, too – giving the world access to reliable, decentralized and transparent information that remains private, secure, and anonymous at the same.
Why It’s Critical to Get Started in Crypto with the Right Platform
If you are new to cryptocurrency and are considering getting started (especially as an investor) it’s critical that you partner with the right people and platforms now.
Platforms like BitLeague have the kind of reputation and institutional trust you can rely on in a burgeoning industry that’s still got room to grow. For starters, we offer up to $100 million in FDIC insurance for our clients– a guarantee that means we’re serious about security.
Combine that with the fact that we provide 24/7, every day of the year access to our 100% free bitcoin exchange platform, offer clients term deposit options that share guaranteed interest year after year, and boast the #1 BTC loan program on the market, and it’s not hard to see why we’ve exploded in popularity in just the last few years.
If you’re considering crypto as an investment option, look no further than BitLeague to get started. Sign up for a free account today, and see if we’re right for you!