Our Two Cents on Cryptocurrency

13 THINGS

- Kat Tretina

1 While cryptocurrency is often associated with shady deals on the dark web, it’s a digital form of money that anyone can use. It’s virtually immune from counterfeiting or government interference, but the main appeal is the potential profit from trading it, making cryptocurrency more commodity than cash.

2 Most cryptocurrencies work using blockchain technology—a type of database that serves as a permanent ledger for transactions. But their value is based on the activity of their users: The more “coins” people buy, the more those coins are worth.

3 The best-known cryptocurrency, or crypto for short, is Bitcoin, which has grown nearly 12,000 percent in value over the past five years. By contrast, the value of Amazon stock grew by 465 percent during that same period. One of the first-ever crypto purchases was made with Bitcoin. Back in 2010, a man bought two takeout pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins, which would be worth about $639 million today.

4 The creator of Bitcoin goes by Satoshi Nakamoto, but (almost) no one knows who Nakamoto is because it’s a pseudonym. Many think it’s a group rather than an individual. One theory is that four Japanese companies, Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola, all collaborated on it and took a part from each of their names.