Why are cryptocurrencies interesting?

You read, heard and saw more and more about cryptocurrencies and blockchains in 2018. Every company, every radio or television broadcast, every newspaper, every magazine, everyone “had to” do something with it. Krijn Soeteman wrote a book for anyone who wants to know more about it, with the disclaimer “This book is not intended as an advice to invest in cryptocurrency”. Here a pre-publication from the chapter “Why are cryptocurrencies interesting?” And the possibility to win a copy.

If you take a photo and send it to a friend, you can say: I don’t have that photo anymore, I really don’t! He is not sure if that is indeed true. Moreover, you also do not know what he does with that photo. He can of course also copy and share that photo again. Now that is not so bad with the average holiday photo, but with twenty euros that becomes less pleasant, because what is that twenty euros still worth if you can copy it constantly? Nothing. Check Mrbitcoinexchange.com for more important information.

Without a sofa

When it comes to money, you will say: we invented banks for that, right ?! That’s right, but banks are of course just as limited online as the services they provide. When bitcoin came up in early 2009, it took at least a day before your money was with another bank in the Netherlands. Apps like Tikkie did not exist yet and transferring money abroad took several days.

And all those 1.7 billion people in the world without a bank could do nothing in the digital domain anyway if some money was needed. Without a bank no credit or debit card and without such a card no possibility to pay to a webshop or to do business with people at a distance, to provide services or products and to participate in the economy.

In fact, in 2009 we had a huge legacy banking and money system: a system that seems to be doing fine in countries where everything is neatly arranged, with apparently fairly reliable institutions and bodies, but if such an institution is not so good you can trust, you just have a problem.

Virtual euros

And finally the blockchain comes into play, or initially of course bitcoin: someone with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto combined several existing cryptographic techniques with a system that would later be called “blockchain”.

And it is that blockchain that can ensure a super secure network in which you can be 100% sure that your transaction, those twenty virtual euros, has actually been executed. Those 20 virtual euros, at a rate of 10,000 euros for 1 bitcoin, so 0.002 bitcoin, which you send virtually to your friend, are just like those 20 physical euros with him and no longer with you.