Cryptocurrency: Common Terms Simplified- Part 1

Cryptocurrency is a recent phenomenon and the crypto lingo may seem confusing for many. Here is a ready reckoner for the novice of some important term used in Crypto trade.

Bitcoin

The first crypto currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto but no such person is believed to exist and it could be a pseudo name of a person or a group of persons. Bitcoin unlike other currencies is not controlled by any Bank or financial institution. It is what is termed as Decentralized Finance with open ledger which can be accessed by anyone. It is based on Blockchain technology.

The numbers of tokens are finite and the tokens are mined by using mining rigs which are actually computers with gargantuan computing abilities. Bitcoin is by far the most valuable and popular cryptocurrency in use today.

Blockchain

Blockchain is the latest and the most revolutionary technological developments of recent times. Blockchain is the technology which is at the heart of the cryptocurrency and non fungible tokens. However Blockchain is finding varied uses in other sectors also like finance and logistics.

Blockchain as the name suggests is a collection of data which are arranged in blocks which are linked to one another. The data is filled in blocks and once full is attached to the previous filled block. The information once entered in the block chain can never be altered or erased. The information is stored and is interlinked with nodes spread across the globe. Every node has an exact copy of the data in the other nodes. This makes the data stored in the Blockchain tamperproof because any change in the data at one node will be detected by the other nodes.

Today Blockchain is used to store information of varied kinds but the most important use has been in recording cryptocurrency transactions. The transactions are entered in a ledger which is public and can be accessed by anyone. The ledger is managed by a peer to peer network which is actually a network of millions of computers.