Cryptocurrencies are a phenomenon, often pictured as the Trojan horse to overthrow the established monetary system. With suspicious news coverage and peculiar rags-to-riches stories, everyone seems to know the gist of this new way to trade — but do you actually know where the crypto comes from?
The first cryptocurrencies
The idea of cryptocurrency did not emerge yesterday, but in 1983, a US cryptographer, David Chaum, published a paper covering the concept of anonymous cryptographic money that would operate electronically. The most revolutionary part of the idea is that this currency would not need centralized entities such as banks to work. Still today, decentralization is a very important value of cryptocurrencies. To put his ideas into practice, Chaum created a prototype named Digicash in 1995.
Digicash was soon followed by another cryptocurrency, Bit Gold, by Nick Szabo in 1998. Bit Gold is often considered the precursor of BTC as it requires computer power and participants to solve cryptographic puzzles vital for transactions. These developments encapsulate the concept of cryptocurrencies quite well: they are digital currencies and alternative ways of payment based on encrypted algorithms.
Case Bitcoin
Bitcoin is currently the leading cryptocurrency, and this is no surprise; BTC has been around for a good while. It was founded on a moderate body of research and information provided by preceding cryptocurrencies. However, the background of Bitcoin is a bit more mysterious: this world-renowned cryptocurrency was founded in 2008 by a group or person using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The project was launched with a famous white paper, “Bitcoin – A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System.”
Bitcoin was different from its predecessors: it solved an issue of double-spending, making the currency independent of central authorities. By 2010, Bitcoin was a tradeable currency with a value of 14 cents. From then on, the currency started establishing its markets and creating a new cryptocurrency market altogether. With growing competition, Bitcoin was forced to update and evolve to stay on top of the game. And it has, although many other projects have evolved to bite their share of the evolving crypto market. Other very notable currencies to emerge in the crypto market include Ethereum, Tether, Binance Coin, Cardano, Ripple, Dogecoin, Solana, Monero, and the Sandbox, to name just a few.
The forever-evolving crypto market
Since the creation of the concept of cryptocurrencies, the evolution of this peculiar monetary instrument has been eventful. It has included volatility and scams but also, on the other hand, success stories in the form of triumphant blockchain solutions besides offering a new decentralized way to trade. In any new emerging industry, speed can create trouble. However, cryptocurrencies keep evolving and perfecting themselves. The market size is proof enough to remind us why crypto is needed.
The crypto market is still in its very early stages, and bitcoin mining is becoming more popular. So even for beginners it can be interesting to start mining crypto. Find the most efficient crypto miners on 123miners.com. Beginners can also start by learning the basics.
