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Cryptocurrency

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
Can someone please explain cryptocurrency to me in layman's terms?

And how it's different from regular currency?
 

Viker

Häxan
Basically, it's a digital form of currency that uses cryptography for security. It's not regulated by banks or government agencies. It also allows units to be stored in digital wallets ( similar to debit accounts).
 
Can someone please explain cryptocurrency to me in layman's terms?

And how it's different from regular currency?
Use your country's currency to buy digital currency. Think of it like buying stocks except, Cryptocurrency's price action (up and down) is far more volatile and unregulated. Lot's of money can be made and lost in a very short amount of time. I have been trading Crypto since 2017
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Use your country's currency to buy digital currency. Think of it like buying stocks except, Cryptocurrency's price action (up and down) is far more volatile and unregulated. Lot's of money can be made and lost in a very short amount of time. I have been trading Crypto since 2017

Me too (since 2017) and I'll second everything you said.

It's been an unbelievable rollercoaster ride, but worth it in the long run (so far).
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
The biggest difference between traditional currency and crypto currency is the (supposed) decentralization of the later. Crypto has no physical existence. It's stored as information on a blockchain:

Blockchain Explained

It's existence and transactions thereof aren't dependent on any central authority or third party (like a bank or any other financial business/service). Therefore it has the potential for strictly peer-to-peer transactions (barring the use of any third party service such as a centralized exchange or Paypal)
 

Suave

Simulated character
Can someone please explain cryptocurrency to me in layman's terms?

And how it's different from regular currency?

"A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a collection of binary data which is designed to work as a medium of exchange. Individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger, which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership."

Cryptocurrency - Wikipedia

In the long run, cryptocurrency will replace paper money, due to cryptos lack of intermediators, it is more accessible and cheaper than paper money.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Do you think it is too late to get in the game?

No, for a lot of reasons. For one thing, as volatile as crypto is you can pretty much count on being able to buy whatever crypto you're interested in at a discount at some point. It isn't unusual at all for even the biggest cryptos-- Bitcoin and Etherium --- to rise and fall 30, 40, 50 or even 100% in the space of months.

For instance Bitcoin started the year priced at 22k, shot up to 60k in March, fell back down to 30k by July, bounced back to hit another all time high (68k) in Nov. and is now sitting around 49k. Most of the coins with smaller marketcaps (all the other coins) have had even wilder swings.

Another reason it isn't too late is that new crypto coins/tokens and are always being produced so it's still possible to get in on the ground floor of a project.

The tech is new so the potential for innovation and thus new projects is huge.

This year the big thing was/is NFTs. Last year it was Defi (decentralized finance). A lot of the related projects and their tokens appreciated 10x, 20x, and even 100x.

No telling what the hot tech is going to be next year (a lot of people are betting it's going to be blockchain gaming).

There's still a lot of opportunity and probably more on the way.

That said, the market is still mostly unregulated, there are a lot of scams out there, a lot of hype, and even a lot of the legit projects will fail eventually, so there's also a lot of risk involved.

You can mitigate a lot of the risk by educating yourself as much as you can, especially about whatever projects you're thinking about taking a chance on..

The Youtube video I linked above is a good place to start.
 

Quetzal

A little to the left and slightly out of focus.
Premium Member
That said, the market is still mostly unregulated, there are a lot of scams out there, a lot of hype, and even a lot of the legit projects will fail eventually, so there's also a lot of risk involved.
As with most high risk investments, don't put down what could potentially ruin you. Good post, thanks!
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
The biggest difference between traditional currency and crypto currency is the (supposed) decentralization of the later. Crypto has no physical existence. It's stored as information on a blockchain:

Blockchain Explained

It's existence and transactions thereof aren't dependent on any central authority or third party (like a bank or any other financial business/service). Therefore it has the potential for strictly peer-to-peer transactions (barring the use of any third party service such as a centralized exchange or Paypal)

I'll queue your video to watch later.

I guess I'm confused...how it has value? Like, how does something like that get going? Someone literally just said, here is an online token, tied to nothing. Let's gamble with them? In exchange for real money? Am I missing something?

If I'm just hopelessly financially illiterate here I apologize.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
Can someone please explain cryptocurrency to me in layman's terms?
I just watched the video Quagmire recommended. It is good. It does not explain the technical side and why 'Crypto' is in the name. A video by the same presenter explains more about how the transactions are secured. The first and original way is "Proof of work," and the newcomer which is less secure but which has some advantages is called "Proof of Stake." Its a long video. 24 minutes, and I'm still not quite clear on how proof of stake operates. I'd have to watch it again probably.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Can someone please explain cryptocurrency to me in layman's terms?

And how it's different from regular currency?

Imo, the word "currency" here is misleading.
It's not a currency in the financial sense.

It is only a currency in the "people define it as such" sense. If enough people agree to trade with it, we could call pokemon cards "currency" as well in the same way.
 
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