What is Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency that can be exchanged securely thanks to cryptography. Cryptography ensures that the transactions are authentic and untampered with. Despite the existence of the notion beforehand, cryptocurrency first gained traction with the emergence of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is considered the first cryptocurrency in the world which captured massive interest. Today, numerous cryptocurrencies have been created. Some of them rely on their own blockchains, others are built on top of other blockchain platforms. The underlying verification processes vary between different cryptocurrencies. Among others, some examples of consensus mechanisms are proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.