CHAPTER 4

Cryptocurrency

Introduction

The electronic money created with technology that controls its creation and

protects transactions while hiding the identity of its users is cryptocurrency.

It is digital cash that is designed to be quick, cheap, and more reliable than

the government-issued currency. It is a decentralized technology that is

spread across multiple computers that manage and record transactions. It is

a form of payment or receipt that can be exchanged online for goods and

services using blockchain technology for its working, and the appeal of this

technology is security. The problems of traditional currencies can be fixed

by putting the power and responsibility in the hands of the currency holder,

which is its purpose. Its importance lies in the fact that it is fast, digital,

secure, and worldwide, which allows the maintenance of records without

any risk of the data being pirated and the fraud minimized.

A paradigm shift has been created by cryptocurrencies in the way we look

at money, potentially buying it and spending it. To secure online

transactions, it is a digital currency that can be used to buy/ sell goods and

services using an online ledger with cryptography. With the motive of

trading for profit, people are interested in these unregulated currencies and

the speculators at times drive the prices skyward.

As a pre-requisite, you would require the fundamental skill and knowledge

in technical fields such as cryptography, data structures, distributed

systems, networking, smart contracts, dApps, distributed ledger knowledge,

the platforms, and the ability to learn to drive business outcomes.

Structure

In this chapter, the following topics will be covered:

Evolution of money