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Below is a list of six things that every cryptocurrency must be in order for it to be called a cryptocurrency;

1. Digital: Cryptocurrency only exists on computers. There are no coins and no notes. There are no reserves for crypto in Fort Knox or the Bank of England!
2. Decentralized: Cryptocurrencies don’t have a central computer or server. They are distributed across a network of (typically) thousands of computers. Networks without a central server are called decentralized networks.
   
3. Peer-to-Peer: Cryptocurrencies are passed from person to person online. Users don’t deal with each other through banks, PayPal or Facebook. They deal with each other directly. Banks, PayPal and Facebook are all trusted third parties. There are no trusted third parties in cryptocurrency! Note: They are called trusted third parties because users have to trust them with their personal information in order to use their services. For example, we trust the bank with our money and we trust Facebook with our holiday photos!
4. Pseudonymous: This means that you don’t have to give any personal information to own and use cryptocurrency. There are no rules about who can own or use cryptocurrencies. It’s like posting on a website like 4chan.
5. Trustless: No trusted third parties means that users don’t have to trust the system for it to work. Users are in complete control of their money and information at all times.
6. Encrypted: Each user has special codes that stop their information from being accessed by other users. This is called cryptography and it’s nearly impossible to hack. It’s also where the crypto part of the crypto definition comes from. Crypto means hidden. When information is hidden with cryptography, it is encrypted.
7. Global: Countries have their own currencies called fiat currencies. Sending fiat currencies around the world is difficult. Cryptocurrencies can be sent all over the world easily. Cryptocurrencies are currencies without borders!

This crypto definition is a great start but you’re still a long way from understanding cryptocurrency. Next, I want to tell you when cryptocurrency was created and why. I’ll also answer the question ‘what is cryptocurrency trying to achieve?’

The Origin of Cryptocurrency

In the early 1990s, most people were still struggling to understand the internet. However, there were some very clever folks who had already realized what a powerful tool it is.

Some of these clever folks, called cypherpunks, thought that governments and corporations had too much power over our lives. They wanted to use the internet to give the people of the world more freely. Using cryptography, cypherpunks wanted to allow users of the internet to have more control over their money and information. As you can tell, the cypherpunks didn’t like trusted third parties at all!

At the top of the cypherpunks, the to-do list was digital cash. DigiCash and Cybercash were both attempts to create a digital money system. They both had some of the six things needed to be cryptocurrencies but neither had all of them. By the end of the
the nineties, both had failed.

The world would have to wait until 2009 before the first fully decentralized digital cash system was created. Its creator had seen the failure of the cypherpunks and thought that they could do better. Their name was Satoshi Nakamoto and their creation was called Bitcoin.

Understanding cryptocurrency means first understanding Bitcoin…