hi in this video we will give an
overview of what cryptocurrency is
crypto is just short for cryptography
cryptography is the practice of encoding
information so only authorized people
can read it and currency is a system of
money in general use in a particular
country the US dollar the euro and many
other major world monies are considered
currencies because their governments
have made them to be used to buy goods
and services cryptocurrency is something
that only exists as a digital currency
it does not hold any underlying value
it's not something you can withdraw from
the bank and hold in your hand it is
only a unique string of letters and
numbers stored digitally both regular
currency and cryptocurrency can be
called money or currency both are
mediums of exchange that are used to
store and transfer data both can be used
to purchase goods and services both have
their value governed by supply demand
work scarcity and other economic factors
and both can be traded on exchanges
regular money is made of some material
like paper cryptocurrency is digital
regular money is legal tender backed by
a centralized government it can take the
form of physical dollars for example
paper Federal Reserve notes or it can be
represented electronically such as with
bank credit and the government controls
the supply cryptocurrency is not legal
tender and it's not backed by a central
government or bank it is decentralized
in global a computer algorithm or
process controls the supply regular
currency requires an intermediary like a
bank or PayPal cryptocurrency is on a
distributed network of computers and no
third parties to trust for the system to
work users are in complete control of
their money and information at all times
when you pay someone cash send them a
check or pay with money from your credit
card they know exactly who made the
purchase because they either actually
see you there
there are some identifying information
attached to the transaction you don't
have to give any personal information to
own and use cryptocurrency and there are
no rules about who can own or use crypto
currencies regular money is inflationary
meaning the value of each dollar
decreases over time and you cannot buy
as much with the same dollar from year
to year cryptocurrency has deflationary
attributes since there is actually a cap
to supply which often causes people to
save more and then purchasing power
usually increases sending regular
currencies around the world can be
difficult with wire transfers and
exchanges between monetary systems
crypto currencies can be sent all over
the world pretty easily now it's your
turn to explore some more resources and
activities