It’s no secret that cryptocurrencies, or digital currencies, are quite volatile. Any news, world event or tweet from Elon Musk influences its value.
This also shows its popularity, despite its recent price crash (in the case of bitcoin and other currencies). However, this is one of the curiosities of cryptocurrencies.
In this article, we will talk about the most unusual data and the main curiosities of cryptocurrencies since they emerged until today. If you want to know them, keep reading until the end.
The most surprising curiosities of cryptocurrencies
The first curiosities that you will find in this guide are based on a basic explanation of how this type of asset works.
In order to understand these curiosities, it is important that you understand how cryptocurrencies work.
Also, know where they come from, how they can be bought and other basic characteristics.
With all this, you will have the ability to get the most out of these curiosities.
So, with this list you will not only have curious or particular information about cryptocurrencies, but they will provide you with important data and information to later start investing your money in these assets.
1. When did cryptocurrencies emerge?
To learn the history of the cryptocurrencies we have to go back a long time, even before the appearance of the first digital currencies.
The first approaches applied mathematical principles to solve problems with traditional currencies.
- In 1908 an American character named David Chauminvented an algorithm that allowed secure and unalterable exchanges of information between the parties.
- After some years, founded his company called DigiCash, a company that produced monetary units based on his algorithm. This company was the first approach, but it failed in the early 1990s.
- In 1998, Wei Daia software engineer, published a white paper on b moneya virtual currency architecture that included many components of today’s cryptocurrencies.
- After Nick Szabo created bit gold. An electronic currency system that required users to complete a cryptographic proof-of-work function.
This brings us to the first decentralized virtual currency, Bitcoinwhich was created by the pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. This is the best known and valued worldwide.
2. What are cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies, (also called crypto-currency) are digital money, that is; They are not physical bills like the ones we know, but these currencies are digital and intangible.
These digital currencies can be transferred from one person to another using the internet and without any intermediaries.
Currently, the most popular cryptocurrencies with the highest number of transactions are: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and DAI. Although today, there are countless existing cryptocurrencies and new ones are created every day.
3. How your price is calculated
To calculate the price of cryptocurrencies it is necessary to take the unconverted price directly from cryptocurrency exchanges and convert it to US dollars. This procedure allows us to know its value in the market in a simple way.
It must be remembered that cryptocurrencies have internal and external factors that affect their price, such as:
supply and demand
This works like any other asset, it increases in price when there is more demand and decreases in price when there is more supply in the market.
Cryptocurrencies are not tied to anything
It means that it is not tied to another currency or asset like gold. Which makes them more volatile.
4. How to buy cryptocurrencies
To have your cryptocurrencies, whichever you choose, you will need an Exchange platform. This platform allows you to transfer your funds, operate and buy and sell any cryptocurrency.
In most of the exchanges you will be able to see all the existing cryptocurrencies in the market and their updated prices to know their price in real time. To start you can explore Coinbase, which is one of the most complete and robust platforms on the market.
On many of these platforms you can also buy and sell cryptocurrencies with other users with the system known as “P2P” (peer to peer, person to person).
It is not necessary to buy a whole cryptocurrency unit, but you can buy fractions.
For example, Bitcoin (the most popular cryptocurrency today), is subdivided into “Satoshis”, with 1 BTC equaling 100 million Satoshis.
If we talk about the value of cryptocurrencies, we must remember that this is calculated through the supply and demand process. Therefore, the highest value cryptocurrencies are also the most requested in the current market.
I already have my cryptocurrencies… what do I do with them?
Once you have your cryptocurrencies, you have two options.
Trading:
The first one is: trading; that is, buying and selling your cryptos to obtain an economic gain thanks to price fluctuations.
To carry out this activity, it is vital to keep in mind that you must be very well informed and aware of all the news on the market, since doing it without knowledge can lose a lot of money.
Hold:
The other option is to “hold”, that is, play the long-term game and simply buy and accumulate cryptocurrencies to earn in the future with the constant price increases.
If you choose this option, it is important that you protect your cryptocurrencies from cyber attacks, for this you should know that the best way to preserve your digital currencies is in what is known as wallets or cold wallets.
These wallets can be both virtual (ie an online platform) or physical.
In both options, you will be able to save your cryptocurrencies and have your own keys or seeds, which consist of patterns of between 12 and 24 words. These keys only you know them. It is important to mention that these passwords must be in a safe and secure place.
As a recommendation, we will mention that the safest wallets are the physical ones, since they are disconnected from the network when they are not being used. Among the most popular and best on the market are the Trezor and Ledger brands.
recommended books
5. Other curiosities of cryptocurrencies
Once you know the basic principles of cryptocurrencies, in the next section we mention some curiosities:
Bitcoin Pizza Day
In May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz He offered for two pizzas the sum of 10,000 BTC, at that time about 41 dollars. Later his offer was accepted. Today, at the time of writing this article, those pizzas would be equivalent to about $569,799,000.
For this transaction, Bitcoin Pizza Day is commemorated on May 22.
hodl
By the English word HOLD is called the process of buying cryptocurrencies to retain them and earn in the long term. But in the field of crypto-currencies it is said “HODL”. Misspelled? Well, yes and no.
In 2013, after a big drop in the value of BTC, a user of a forum created a post entitled “i’m hodling” and in the text of it he kept the error of writing HODL instead of HOLD.
Currently, the term HODL is used as an acronym for the phrase: “hold on for dear life”.
BTC creator
Although the creator of BTC is known under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto his true identity is really a mystery. Many point out that this is a pseudonym of a hacker and others even believe that the CIA is behind this invention.
It is from this name, whether true or pseudonymous, that the denomination of the BTC fractions arises.
21 Million Bitcoin
The number of BTC is finite, since its creation it was defined that only 21 million Bitcoin can be created. This has the objective that Bitcoin is like gold a deflationary currency.
Clearly this particularity influences the price of this currency.
Curious names of cryptocurrencies
within the curiosities of cryptocurrencies the existence of digital currencies with the most unusual origins and names stands out.
For example, the DOGECOIN that emerged from a famous internet meme, and there is even the JesusCoin (JC), the TrollCoin (TROLL) and the Pandemic (PNDM) that contrary to what you may believe, did not emerge in 2020 but rather in 2018 intended to be a game.
The particularities of cryptocurrencies
Although we have mentioned only a few curiosities of cryptocurrenciesit is known that the world of the same is immense, full of peculiarities and data that can surprise us when knowing them.
For example, names of digital currencies, their creators, origin of each of them, their own jargon about it, etc.
The information is more than vast and new cryptocurrencies are constantly emerging that can continue adding many more curiosities of cryptocurrencies to this listing.
Continue reading: How to define the mission and vision of a company (15 Examples)
