Cryptocurrencies is creating lot of buzz in the present financial scenario. A large number of people are buying them, selling them or simply investing in them.
The denizens of the cryptocurrency ecosystem which consists of the users, miners, traders and brokers are steadily increasing in number with every passing day. One may wonder what the hype is about. Let’s throw some light into the matter.
Cryptocurrency is digital money that is used to purchase goods and services. It is a cryptographically secured currency that exists in the digital world. All the transactions related to cryptocurrency are entered in a distributed, digitized, decentralized and immutable ledger known as blockchain.
The blockchain has many other significant functions and keeping record of the transaction related to a particular cryptocurrency is one of them.
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that was created by Satoshi Nakamoto with the purpose of establishing a trusted, decentralized, peer to peer payment system that is much more convenient, faster and effective than the existing ones that are afflicted by several shortcomings.
After bitcoin’s emergence, more than thousand other cryptocurrencies have appeared on the scene that has different use cases. All other cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin are called altcoins.
Cryptographic encryption is the backbone of cryptocurrency which makes them reliable and secure. Encryption is a process of converting meaningful data into code which can’t be deciphered by anyone except the holder of the key (which is a long string of numbers or alphabets) to decrypt the code.
Unlike simple data encryption, in case of cryptocurrency, two keys are generated by the system that mathematically linked to each other. One of them is used for encryption and the other one is used for decryption.
The key that is used for encryption is the public key while the key that is used for decryption is the private key. While accepting payment, the public key is required to be shared with the public. However the private key must be kept extremely confidential as functions like a password and gives access to your cryptocurrencies.
The following infographic is on Women In Cryptocurrency – Top 8 Women in Cryptocurrency. This infographic was developed by our friends at MrBTC.org, please check the infographic and share your thoughts.
