What is Cryptocurrency?

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Etymologically, cryptocurrency is composed of two words, namely crypto which refers to cryptography or a coding language in the computer world and currency that refers to the value of a currency. From the definition can be drawn that cryptocurrency is a digital currency mechanism that can be used to transact virtually or via the internet protected by complex computer coding.

So what distinguishes it from currencies that are currently commonly used, such as the Dollars, which has also been widely used for digital transactions? Cryptocurrency is decentralized. What is a decentralized system of transaction? Read further below.

The following explanation of the differences between the two properties in a case study.

Centralized Transaction

The centralized nature is exemplified in the transaction model that has often been used by the community. For example, in this case, the parents who want to send money to their children overseas are exemplified, so what they do is use banking services (ATM, Mobile Banking, or come directly to the relevant bank) and then transfer some money to the child’s account number. The transaction is basically done through a bank intermediary and a trusted service.

So the process is that the money transferred is actually entered into the bank first, then forwarded to the recipient. The process is real-time so the displacement is not felt. However, what is felt is precise because the process is through an intermediary, there are rewards that must be paid, namely in the form of administrative costs, both incurred immediately (if sending to a different bank account) or in administration fees charged every month.

Decentralized Transaction

While the decentralized nature means that no one is an intermediary or special party is the intermediary. Transactions are carried out peer-to-peer from sender to recipient. All transactions are recorded on a computer in the network, worldwide, or called a miner (miners who help secure and record transactions on the network). The miner himself will get a commission with the virtual money used, but not everyone can become a miner because it requires special expertise with complex computational processing to solve the cryptography used. This is one of the reasons why cryptocurrency miners generally use high-specification and special computers.

The nature of decentralization is the DNA of the Blockchain system. Basically Blockchain is a platform that allows cryptocurrency digital currencies to be used for transactions.