The Age of Physical Currencies is passing and making way for a new era of digitization. With the development of apps and smart phones, never has it been easier to bank or move money on the go. You can do everything from transferring money to even depositing checks in the palm of your hand. Money is slowly becoming less and less tangible, but the question is how intangible can it really become?
Because the theoretical value aspect of money, some people have taken their own initiative to create new kind of currencies, called cryptocurrency, that is solely created through interactions on the web.
What exactly is Cryptocurrency?
Definition: a medium of exchange designed around securely exchanging information which is a process made possible by certain principles of cryptography. The first cryptocurrency to begin trading was Bitcoin in 2009. Since then, numerous cryptocurrencies have been created. (Wikipedia)
How Cryptocurrency works:
Basically cryptocurrency works by making your computer do work through millions of calculations. This is called mining. Through the amount of calculations, you get coins for the amount of work that is done. And these coins are used to trade items, services, and/or real money. These trade transactions then in turn fuel the calculations that are needed to collect coins. It’s a self-perpetuating circle.
Some cryptocurrencies have a limit to the amount of coins that can be mined. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that has such a limit. Although the limit is not known, it is something to worry about in the future. Once all the coins are mined, people will not be able to create more coins.
There are also other new upcoming cryptocurrencies that do not have a limit, one such cryptocurrency is Dogecoin.
The Wonder that is Doge:
Dogecoin is a crytocurrency that was created and introduced on the web on December 8, 2013. It was a first created as joke, because of its homage to the internet meme, but it soon became popular and recognized as one of the leading cryptocurrencies in the world.
The meme that it references is doge, which is slang for the word dog. It is commonly associated with picture of a Shiba Inu Doge staring off the distance. It all started with a Japanese school teacher posting a picture of their new dog that she had just rescued from a shelter.
Dogecoin had a spike in the value of its money when it first started and is now steadily decreasing towards zero. However recently it has been going back up again.
Cryptocurrency is an interesting way to make money, although it is impractical for normal everyday use because of the cost of electricity. There are actually new laws that recognize it as a legitimate type of currency. There was actually a law passed recently in California, that just did this. Will it be able to survive mainstream integration? Only time will tell.