Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies are on everyone’s lips. They promise fantastic increases in value. In times of rising inflation, it is also an independent financial investment.
Crypto finance industry has emerged
Bitcoin has been around for years. It is the most valuable and important cryptocurrency. It started as a romantic vision of a world without banks, you could get it for pennies. Today the course fluctuates between 30,000 and over 50,000 euros. An entire crypto finance industry has sprung up.
These values are created because they are written down in a gigantic, decentralized logbook. All transactions ever made are recorded from the first coin to the present day.
Blockchain: constantly changing accountants
An algorithm was programmed to ensure that there is only one valid logbook accepted by everyone per blockchain of a cryptocurrency. Among all network participants, the accountant who keeps the logbook changes constantly, for example every 15 minutes continue to write for the community.
Blockchain is considered tamper-proof
In order to determine whose turn it is to keep the books next, the currently last link in the chain ends with a cryptographic puzzle whose code can only be cracked with enormous computing power. Whoever cracks the crypto puzzle first gets to write the next block, hence the name blockchain. Due to the decentralized process, the blockchain is considered to be forgery-proof.
Cryptocurrencies escape the influence of state monetary policy
The blockchain can create trust between the individual market participants. Conventional currencies can only be created by a central authority, a central bank. This means that cryptocurrencies are completely unaffected by state monetary policy. Theoretically, banks are no longer needed to pass on central bank money such as euros or dollars, called fiat money, to the people.
Because the blockchain protocols of Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies are also programmed that only a limited amount of money can be mined, the digital currency is also considered to be particularly secure against inflation. No wonder, then, that Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be developed more than a decade ago as a direct result of the global financial crisis.
But how sustainable are cryptocurrencies really?
The carbon footprint of the infrastructure of the fiat financial system is missing here for comparison. And Etherum and other smaller blockchain networks are already working to make their system more climate-friendly.