A cryptocurrency (also called a crypto asset or crypto currency) is a digital medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets using distributed ledger technologies. Cryptocurrencies are a type of alternative currency or digital currency. There is controversy regarding whether cryptocurrencies should be decentralized control or centralized currencies by central banks or another entity, leaving these entities or central banks without any function.
Cryptocurrencies generally use decentralized control instead of a central bank digital currency (CBDC); the control of each cryptocurrency works through a decentralized database, usually a "blockchain," which serves as a public financial transaction database.
The first cryptocurrency to start operating was Bitcoin in 2009, and since then others with different characteristics have appeared such as Litecoin, Ethereum, BNB (Binance), Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, or Dogecoin.
From cryptocurrencies, tokens have emerged that run on the same blockchains in which they are created. A clear example of these are ERC-20 tokens that run on the Ethereum network. Some Ethereum-based tokens are Chainlink (LINK), Thousand (TSN), Uniswap (UNI), among others.
In cryptocurrency systems, the security, integrity, and balance of their account states (accounting) are guaranteed through a structured network of agents (segmented file transfer or multi-source file transfer) that verify (distrust) each other called miners, who are mostly public in general and actively protect the network (the framework) by maintaining a high processing rate of algorithms, with the aim of having the opportunity to receive a small tip, which is distributed randomly.
