Money seems like a pretty simple concept at a glance. If you think more about it, it starts to be a bit confusing. It is a thing that we humans have made, but at the same time is limiting us. Well, most of us, the ones that are the top really don’t care about all of this. This is where cryptocurrencies come in to help out a bit but in a complicated way.
Understanding the exact way cryptocurrency works would require you to do a bit more research. Fortunately, it is easy to get into the ins and hows about it. With those basics, you can better understand why this is becoming a good investment. Everyone has heard about bitcoin and the stories about becoming rich overnight with them. It is time to see what this is all about and why you should consider other cryptocurrencies.
What is so important about cryptocurrency?
One of the main problems associated with cash currencies is that they are centralized. Sometime around the first half of the 20th century, the richest people alive decided that all of the money in the world is to be backed by our own belief in the US dollar. Before that, there was the gold standard. With this centralization, comes a lot of corruption. It can be swayed depending on politics. Crypto, on the other hand, is decentralized and can be a true objective currency that can not be swayed by people. This is very important and why so many people want it.
First, came bitcoin, but what about the others?
Bitcoin came around in 2009 and it was not very popular. Nowadays, it is one of the largest and all other cryptocurrencies are called altcoins (like an alternative). The popularity of bitcoin is the reason why it can be hard to invest in it in the present day. When compared to Litecoin price in the UK you can see a big difference. Even though it costs less, it does not mean it is less worth it. Making an investment in altcoins can be a lot safer for this very reason. This is still a very volatile market, so when starting out it is best to do with something safer.
First, altcoins started appearing around 2011 and there are still new ones coming out. As bitcoin is going pretty mainstream now, altcoins may seem like a futile investment. Besides altcoins being safer, they also adhere much better to one basic principle about crypto. Most of them are much more decentralized than bitcoin. Someone has to control the blockchain behind the currency, but it is feared that this might not be done as objectively by bitcoin as it can. This could make bitcoin more vulnerable to corruption, which is not something we want happening.
The vastness of altcoins
Bitcoin is one, but there are many more altcoins to choose from. Every altcoin is unique in its own way and has its pros, but also cons. When considering whether to invest in altcoins, you should do your research. The downside is that you might spend more time researching than investing, but it will pay off. Finding a good altcoin can make you a fortune which will make all the research worthwhile.
The risk is not high but the rewards are
Again, some altcoins can be just a miss or a scam. With bitcoin, you can know what to expect, but with altcoins, the currency might just disappear. But it also may not, you will never know. People did not believe that bitcoin would be so big, but it is. And when other cryptocurrencies appeared, people also did not think they would be big.
And again, they were wrong and the people who invested smartly knew that the reward can be great. Even if the currency just disappears, you did not spend a fortune on it. You could have lost much more by investing in something else, and that is okay.
The importance of true anonymity
The other main feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are mostly confidential. The exchange itself can be seen, but the persons who are behind them are anonymous. This feature is also compromised by some other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is not as anonymous as it may present itself to be. A lot more information could be gathered from these transactions than they should be.
Most of the other altcoins are better at keeping their transactions confidential. They are not swayed by them going mainstream. Besides that, they offer new kinds of security to make sure that this can not be manipulated if it gets in the wrong hands. Of course, we will need some new security once quantum computers get more accessible, but that is still in the future.
Promoting what free-market capitalism really should be
The point of free-market capitalism is that it should bring more innovation. This innovation can only be achieved if there are other competitors to stand out. These competitors can stand out if they are being invested in. If bitcoin becomes the norm, it might halt further development. As has been presented earlier, there are flaws in that cryptocurrency that can be fixed.
These problems can not be fixed if there is a monopoly of bitcoin around that will not allow other altcoins to exist and promote innovation. Saving our principles is something that we should think about more often, especially when investing. Investment is the only way to achieve this, even if there are so many bright ideas out there, they can’t shine unless they are given a chance.
The history of altcoins is still young, but there is a bright future ahead. There is much more to be learned about all of this. Cryptocurrency altogether is a very new concept, but one that should be given a chance. The money we use right now has not been around forever. There were other systems in the past, but money surprised them and that is why we use it today.
Time progresses and we must adapt. Something we think is good now might not be tomorrow and you need to be ready to make the change. That change could be cryptocurrency. If that is the case, even then we should continue to look at it with a close eye. Bitcoin may seem like the best current option if crypto overtakes, but it might not be. There are many cons to it and we should be critical about investing in it and give a chance to other altcoins.