Cryptocurrency is a type of digital payment used to exchange goods and services over the internet. It is a digitated resource reserved on computerized databases. To keep them protected, these digitized coins are recorded in digital ledgers using strong cryptography. These are a “peer-to-peer encrypted network” in order to facilitate the system of digital bartering which is nothing but a digital form of barter system which used to prevail in the ancient ages.
Bitcoin is the most well-known and widely used type of cryptocurrency, having existed for more than two decades. By using Cryptocurrency, without any third-party overlook, user can feasibly reciprocate value digitally. There is a limited no. of bitcoin, precluding an overabundance and also securing its rarity. The value of bitcoin exists among its users because if it is accepted as payment, its users will utilise it elsewhere to purchase any goods or services they require by paying with bitcoin. After all value continue to exists by reason of acceptance and faith. There are a lot of websites which offers the facility of buying cryptocurrency from their website and one such popular website is Bitcoin prices.
The reason behind the popularity of Cryptocurrency includes variety of reasons. One is supporters of bitcoin see them as a future currency and thus are racing to buy presently, most probably because they might become more valuable in future. Secondly, unlike traditional currencies, digital currencies are decentralised among their users, whereas traditional currencies are subject to the control of authorities, banks, and agencies, and users are unable to exercise control over their money due to inflation. This barrier will not exist in digitised currencies, and users will be able to exercise supremacy over Bitcoin. Thirdly, cryptocurrencies can be more secured form of payments in contrast with traditional system of payments. “Technology behind cryptocurrency, the block chain, as it is the decentralized processing and recording system” thus proven to be more secure digital payments. Fourthly, “some speculators like Cryptocurrency as the value is going up thus no interest in traditional money’s long-term acceptance.”
Cryptocurrencies may appreciate in value, but many investors regard them as “mere speculation” rather than legitimate investments. This is in view of the fact that currency needs stability, so that the fair and actual price of the goods can be ascertained by the consumers and merchants. For instance, “while bitcoin traded at close to $20,000 in December 2017, its value then dropped to as low as about $3,200 a year later. By December 2020, it was trading at record levels again.” This price unpredictability and fluctuation in value creates problem. These fluctuations would tend to reduce the consumer’s interest as well. Another risk is lack of central ownership means no remedy will be provided in case of any “fraud and theft, which have been seen generally in because of the faulty setup by exchange companies.” There is also huge divergence in laws that masks the use of Cryptocurrency. This would tend to reduce the user’s acceptances they would not be able to remediate in case any fraud or theft. And ultimately, abovementioned factors limit the users as well as investor’s faith and acceptance in cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. Thus, future investors must consider before investing in bitcoin.
Cryptocurrencies insinuate to move past the early adoption phase of the new technology. Cryptocurrencies are still in its outset, and its arduous to predict whether it will be striving to come in a mainstream as its presence in the world markets. Bitcoin is gaining traction in the mainstream by combining innovation and problem-solving.” Other types of cryptocurrencies have also arisen, each with its own set of advantages over bitcoin. Iceland, for example, has begun to build its own national currency. It is feasible that cryptocurrency could have a future as a major currency in the future, and that bitcoins will pave the way for existing cryptocurrencies to thrive. “The potential of cryptocurrencies to perform micro transactions may allow to bridge the economic gap which the traditional currencies would not be able to solve. Earlier the digital currency was entirely unheard of that has been changed by the introduction of Cryptocurrency in the market and bitcoin is single headedly able to change that. Cryptology may be called as the mechanism of new and existing digitized conventions.”