Disha Banerjee

For the last few months, crypto currency has been in the news. You must have come across these terms in your news feed. Billionaires like Elon Musk have tweeted about it; in fact one of the trending hashtags of Twitter India was #indiawantscrypto.

Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021

In this article, we are going to talk about cryptos-data mining-block chains and why it is important to have a decentralized digital currency.

So what exactly is Crypto currency? And why is it being talked about so much?

In earlier days, in ancient times there was no fixed currency throughout the world. People used to trade in exchange for rice bags, cattle and jewellery. Then, different kingdoms decided to have their own specific currency to maintain the cash flow within their territory. As we can see different countries have different currencies that have different values from each other, for example – dollar, rupees, pound.

 So coming to the main topic, what is crypto currency?

Crypto currency is a digital currency that uses blockchain technology and doesn’t have a centralised authority to control it.

Simply saying when we transfer money to someone we know using UPI, bank transaction there are multiple individuals who can earn through that transaction as the bank or the Govt. validates the transaction. So each time you are transacting your money not only your money but also your details go through multiple checkpoints before completion.

Crypto doesn’t deal with all these. They directly deal between two peers. So, the money directly goes from sender to receiver and vice-versa without sharing our details or profit.

But how? What is block-chain exactly?

We tried to sum these things up very simply for you.

So block-chain is the way how digital currencies travel. Simplifying it, in blockchain the data stores in the blocks, “digital blocks” and through a chain system, it travels virtually from one merchant to another. In the virtual world, it is known as ‘digital ledger’ and we can also say ‘DATA’ is the new oil. And why is that? Because we feed on data each and every second.

Exactly! But the data and crypto data is totally different. In blockchain nobody can use your data neither can read it.  If you ever forget your password there might be a high–high chance you can lose your crypto currency forever. 

Now Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, Etherium are some of the famous cryptos. The value of Bitcoin in today’s market is 25, 52,145.78 Indian Rupees.

But why should we accept cryptos as currency?

1. Nobody controls the currency; there is no centralised authority who can control the value, flow.
2. No transaction restrictions; there is no limited or restricted amount that can be transferred and any amount to any nationality can be sent. Nobody or organization gets to decide the transaction.
3. It is secure as no one gets to alter the money.
4. This transaction can be anonymous and your privacy is secured.

And fifth and most important.

• It is limited: there is only a finite amount of crypto forever and nobody can create more. The value of the printed currency goes down each time the Govt. decides to make new notes so the scarcity somehow elopes and it is not the same with cryptos.  There will be always 21 million bitcoins and that’s it. That’s why it is known as digital gold.

Now the question is how can you acquire Crypto Currency?

There is something called data mining, just like gold or coal mining, where miners process transactions and get rewards in the form of let’s say Bitcoin or Ether.

It can be a lengthy process and requires powerful technology. So, practically saying crypto mining is not possible for everyone.

So, how does one can get access to these?

There are people and agencies who buy and hold bitcoins, commonly known as “Hodlers”.

One can purchase from them.

Now comes the current scenario.  Why everyone is suddenly talking about cryptos?

1. At the starting of the year 2021, Govt. of India has proposed to ban all the private digital currencies and come up with a sovereign digital currency sometime “soon”.
2. In the last few weeks, the value of these digital currencies has dropped drastically, where the highest value was once 45,680,000 to 25, 52,145 today. On Wednesday, according to a statement by the Chinese banking association which said financial institutions should “resolutely refrain” from providing services using digital currencies because of their volatility. These influenced the stake of all digital currencies bringing a steep drop in the values.

Digital currency is the future of currency system says many finance experts and it only is evident with time.

Tell us what is the future of crypto currencies according to you?

Should Govt. refrain from banning it and why do you think is important to have crypto coins in your portfolio?

Share the article if it enlightens you about the topic.

https://rtdjournal.com/south-korean-university-pays-student-cryptocurrency-for-their-poop/