Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that does not rely on banks to verify transactions.
It is a peer-to-peer system that can allow anyone, anywhere, to send and receive payments.
Instead of being physical money that is carried and exchanged in the real world, cryptocurrency payments exist purely as digital entries in an online database that describes specific transactions.
When you transfer funds in cryptocurrency, transactions are recorded in a public ledger.
Cryptocurrency got its name because it uses encryption to verify transactions. This means that advanced coding is involved in the storage and transmission of cryptocurrency data between wallets and to public ledgers.
The purpose of encryption is to provide security and protection.
The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was founded in 2009 and remains the most well-known today.
Much of the interest in cryptocurrencies is to trade for profit, with speculators sometimes driving prices up.
