The Halcyonite

Elias

’25

I will discuss the positive and negative sites in investing in Crypto currencies. 

First, what is actually a cryptocurrency and where does it come from? 

The Origin of the word crypto is greek “kruptos” and can be translated into ‘hidden’ or/and ‘secret’. 

Crypto was first established in 2009. It was invented by a Chinese group under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomato. They published a document describing the beginnings of the main idea of blockchain and how it might be able to create a digital currency. The idea that this group had was to create an anonymous currency that can exist independently of central banks and countries. This idea was started after the big bank crises of 2008. 

The oldest of all cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin, but in the last years, crypto currencies boomed, creating over 4000 of them. 

So what can crypto currencies be used for?

Crypto currencies can be used to make purchases mainly on the internet, but some shops also accept them in the real world. An example of this is, when you buy a house, a lot of companies already accept bitcoin as a valuable payment. (Will it ever overtake the valuability of American express? Dw if you don’t get the joke Lol) 

Its operating principle is based on cryptographic encryption – hence the term “Cryptocurrency”. 

Crypto, as mentioned before, is basically a digital form of currency. As real money is stored safely in a bank, digital currencies have to protect themselves. Cryptocurrencies use different ways to secure themselves, but the most popular way (used by altcoins such as bitcoin, dash, Ethereum, Ethereum classic etc) is the blockchain technology. 

Blockchain technology is in simple terms a chain of data-blocks that contain information, therefore every data block in a blockchain is as unique as a fingerprint. This is important for security, as when a hacker manages to break through all of the strong firewalls and tries to compromise data or the bank account linked to it, all the following blocks get invalid, making it nearly impossible to steal full information from a blockchain. 

Now that we know what a cryptocurrency is and what it is made of, let’s discuss if it is worth investing your money into it.

Taking a closer look at crypto’s future, financial analysts foresee a huge growth in all terms a currency can grow. As you can buy crypto in an amount that is comfortable to you, it will make it even more popular. Another and arguably the most important positive part of crypto, is that it is not affected by government regulations; which might not matter too much in Europe, but looking into China, it will get very popular. This is important, as governments and banks are centralised, but cryptocurrencies in comparison are decentralised. That means nobody can take away the digital “property”: it’s physically impossible. Crypto itself is completely private. This means that there is no information about your personal details, as your ID you created in your crypto wallet is safed in a blockchain. 

So, if one of you feels uneasy about the traditional banking system, it is a great alternative.