{"id":11837,"date":"2022-10-24T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.11onze.cat\/?p=11837"},"modified":"2022-10-24T12:36:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T10:36:17","slug":"cryptocurrencies-key-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.11onze.cat\/en\/magazine\/cryptocurrencies-key-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrencies: 5 key ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Digital currencies are becoming more common, but it is still quite unknown what they are and how they work. Let’s try to clarify, in a simple way and in five points, their fundamental characteristics.<\/b><\/h3>\n

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A little history of cryptocurrencies<\/b><\/h3>\n

We have to go back to the early eighties of the last century to find the first steps in the idea of a virtual currency protected by cryptography by the hands of David Chaum: the creation of eCash. The final push came in 2008, when the document that developed Bitcoin was published by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Bitcoin, the first units of which were put into circulation on January 3, 2009, it is considered that cryptocurrencies were definitely born. Its creators described it as “a peer-to-peer cash system”, with no regulation or control by governments or institutions.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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How do cryptocurrencies work?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Encryption, for security reasons, is based on blockchain technology, a data storage structure following algorithms, almost impossible to counterfeit, open to all users, that works like an electronic register book of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this way a digital currency is created without physical form, but the ownership, the integrity of the transactions, and the control of the creation of new units can be assured. This gives cryptocurrencies the guarantee to be used as money for everyone: to trade, to buy, or to save them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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