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Cryptocurrency (also known as crypto) is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange. It uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions, as well as to control the creation of new units of a particular digital currency. Many cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger enforced by a distributed network of computers. Cryptocurrencies are distinguished from fiat currencies like the United States dollar or the British pound because any central authority does not issue them, making them potentially impervious to government intervention or manipulation. This article will discuss various concepts of a cryptocurrency to help you understand the novel financial innovation

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided.[1] The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. NFTs can be created by anybody and require few or no coding skills to create. NFTs typically contain references to digital files such as artworks, photos, videos, and audio. Because NFTs are uniquely identifiable, they differ from cryptocurrencies, which are fungible. Illustration of a non-fungible token generated by a smart contract (a program designed to automatically execute contract terms) Proponents claim that NFTs provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership, but the legal rights conveyed by an NFT can be uncertain. The ownership of an NFT as defined by the blockchain has no inherent legal meaning and does not necessarily grant copyright, intellectual property rights, or other legal rights over its associated digital file. An NFT does not restrict the sharing or copying of its associated digital file and does not prevent the creation of NFTs that reference identical files. The trading of NFTs in 2021 increased to $17 billion over just $82 million in the previous year.[2] NFTs have been used as speculative investments and they have drawn criticism for the energy cost and carbon footprint associated with some types of blockchain, as well as their use in art scams.[3] The NFT market has also been compared to an economic bubble or a Ponzi scheme.[4] During their peak, the three biggest NFT platforms were Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano.[5] In 2022, the NFT market collapsed; a May 2022 estimate was that the number of sales was down over 90% compared to 2021.[6] By September 2023, one report claimed that over 95% of NFT collections had zero monetary value.[7][8]

4f16d98832135bbbd99eab1548abcb644673515e4eb93a525b4b36eb58c5b3751

Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that doesn't rely on banks to verify transactions. It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments. Instead of being physical money carried around and exchanged in the real world, cryptocurrency payments exist purely as digital entries to an online database describing specific transactions. When you transfer cryptocurrency funds, the transactions are recorded in a public ledger. Cryptocurrency is stored in digital wallets. Cryptocurrency received its name because it uses encryption to verify transactions. This means advanced coding is involved in storing and transmitting cryptocurrency data between wallets and to public ledgers. The aim of encryption is to provide security and safety. The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was founded in 2009 and remains the best known today. Much of the interest in cryptocurrencies is to trade for profit, with speculators at times driving prices skyward

CRYPTOCURRENCY Non-Fungible Token (NFT): What It Means and How It Works Understand how and why NFTs are being used today By RAKESH SHARMA Updated January 28, 2024 Reviewed by DORETHA CLEMON Fact checked by YARILET PEREZ What Is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)? Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are assets that have been tokenized via a blockchain. Tokens are unique identification codes created from metadata via an encryption function. These tokens are then stored on a blockchain, while the assets themselves are stored in other places. The connection between the token and the asset is what makes them unique. 1 NFTs can be traded and exchanged for money, cryptocurrencies, or other NFTs—it all depends on the value the market and owners have placed on them. 2 For instance, you could draw a smiley face on a banana, take a picture of it (which has metadata attached to it), and tokenize it on a blockchain. Whoever has the private keys to that token owns whatever rights you have assigned to the token. Cryptocurrencies are tokens as well; however, the key difference is that two cryptocurrencies from the same blockchain are interchangeable—they are fungible. Two NFTs from the same blockchain can look identical, but they are not interchangeable.