CRYPTOCURRENCY

Different types of cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency is one of the hot subjects around the world that startled everyone with its sky rocking growth ever since it got accepted by various business world authorities. A quick idea about its growth can be seen by the following prices of bitcoin [one of cryptocurrency]

                                                                                                                                                                   

Year	Price of bitcoin
2011	$2
2015	$750
2019	$3968

So, here are some of the basics of cryptocurrency.

MEANING.  

                 

Cryptocurrency is the digital currency that is coded with the assistance of cryptography to secure the financial transaction. Cryptocurrency is unlike from other e-wallets like Patym, PayPal, etc. where you can loan money from the bank and use it, while cryptocurrency is not bounded to any particular nation or bank. Thus, cryptocurrency has the potential to become a worldwide currency that is not tied to any specific country or central bank.

ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION.

The origin of decentralized cryptocurrency happened late back in 2009 with an unveiling of "bitcoin" being the first of its kind cryptocurrency. It was produced by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It is yet to be discovered whether it is the name of a person or a group.

The journey started in 2009 with bitcoin and later on Litecoin in 2011 and many more introduced in the market. Cryptocurrency exists in the market now with most having a hash function of SHA-256d and Scrypt.

WORKING OF CRYPTOCURRENCY.

Under the working process of cryptocurrency, obligatory things required is the private key that helps to generate a public key, which sequentially produces the address. It is a “peer to peer” transaction.

One person can have single or multiple addresses as well. This address includes 26-35 alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1 or 3   (like1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2). There is exists nothing like an individual identity in cryptocurrency. The only identity one has is its public key that is linked to its address. In short, the ID of an individual stays anonymous. Whereas private key is the password to run the public key and address effectively by both ends i.e. for sending and receiving.

Example:

A need to send his peer B Rs 50000 by any cryptocurrency, let say bitcoin.

A send his public key, signature, and message to B.  B then checks using his verification algorithm that the message has been sent by the sender i.e. A, which can only be done by the holder of private key to that particular public key that is sent.

Hence A can handover his public key to anyone he wants to make payment. Later, to complete the transaction he needs the private key to that public key.

Transaction done in cryptocurrency is highly secured as they are anonymous.

CURRENT MARKET.

If we talk about the market capitalization of bitcoin, it is nearly more than $237 billion while the market capitalization of Ethereum is $14,939 million and its current market value is around $140. Similarly, there exist more than 1600 cryptocurrencies around the globe and many more to come.

Therefore, no doubt cryptocurrency surely has a stretched journey to run. But, there are certain consequences of it as well. It can be easily used for money laundering because of its heavy convertibility into different currencies, it is strongly volatile. Also if you have stored it on your phone or PC you better remember your password and not lose it. Else, you won't be able to retrieve it. An incident took place recently with Canadian cryptocurrency exchange company QuadrigaCX, whose CEO Gerald cotton,30, is the only person who knew the security key and password needed to access the funds, died of complication from Crohn's disease while traveling in India.

Also, many countries like Canada, Australia, China, the EU, Russia have already regulated Bitcoin under there law and taxation framework while in some countries like Costa Rica, it is not legal to deal in any kind of cryptocurrency because of its high volatility and anonymous nature.

Supreme Court lifted the ban on Cryptocurrency, here's what next.

Indian’s virtual currency industry had come to standstill after the following prohibited notification by the RBI in April 2018. Over a period of two years, several exchanges have been shifted to overseas or closed their business altogether.

Now, that supreme court of India has lifted the ban over the dealing of cryptocurrency. Here’s what can happen next.  

• Cryptocurrency companies are expected to revive their plans to invest in India.
• A virtual currency has approx. 1.7 million verified users in India. 
• India shares around 2-10% share of the overall market.
• It has a global size of $430 billion.
• The internet and mobile association of India [IAMAI] is looking forward to work jointly with the RBI and the govt. to construct the framework for cryptocurrency in India. 
• INR banking returns to crypto-exchange in India.
• Will lead to more start-ups in the cryptocurrency in India as till now the Indian market is a sleeping giant.

Hence, after the lifting of ban the success of current leading cryptocurrency i.e. bitcoin in dealing with the challenges, it faces may determine the future of other cryptocurrencies in the coming years ahead.

                                         

Logos of different cryptocurrencies.

 

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