Cryptocurrency is a kind of virtual security,
not issued by the nation like fiat money.

Currently, there are over 5,000 of them and they belong to 3 main groups: altcoins,
tokens and Bitcoin. Theoretically, it is a means of payment, 
but about 95% of users use it to trade (buy cheaper, sell more expensive). 
Some of them are decentralized, not controlled by banks and governments, 
but some of them are centralized.

Cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technology (blockchain), 
which enables virtually anonymous transactions with a string of numbers
and characters, unlike banks that have all our personal data.

There are many opponents of crypto, e.g. due to their high instability
or constantly changing legal sanctions. Financial institutions often make
life difficult for crypto owners, because it's hard to put your hands on something
that is anonymous, but they also try to circumvent this problem by creating
their own state-controlled digital currencies.
Several countries have declared that they are 
working on such a solution,
eg China, which wants to introduce digital yuan
as an additional state currency,
but no government has yet completed
such a project. However, I think that it will
not be many years when, for example,
"cryptocurrency" or digital euro appears.


History

As for the history of cryptocurrencies, it's really hard to say who and when
was their originator. Cryptocurrencies were in part initiated by a project 
by David Chaum in 1983, which involved the development of an algorithm that 
allowed for the safe transfer of numerical data and allowed for their possible change.
A lot has changed since then, but it was definitely a landmark event.

An equally important date is 2008, when Neal King, Charles Bry and Vladimir Oksman,
three computer scientists register the domain bitcoin.com. 
They dealt with securing computer networks and officially applied for 
patenting solutions that are very similar to those currently used by Bitcoin.


In the same year, a person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamato 
announces a manifesto outlining the basic principles by which cryptocurrencies 
operate. Interestingly, little is known about Satoshi so far, but mainly thanks to 
his article, information about cryptocurrencies has spread around the world. 
In 2009, the first of them are excavated, e.g. the famous "digital gold" - Bitcoin.
Paradoxically, it is better known than the cryptocurrencies themselves, so it 
deserves a separate article. 😉

In 2010, the first Internet exchange is established - two-dollar, 
which allowed for transactions. In the next four years, cryptocurrencies flourished,
for example, because in 2014 Microsoft made it possible to accept payments in Bitcoin.

In 2017, there was a huge bull market with 1 BTC reaching $ 20,000 and 
1 ETH with $ 1,400.
Will we return to such cryptocurrency prices?
About this in the following articles.

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