Credit Suisse’s 2021 Global Health Report estimates the global wealth to be 418.3 trillion USD. Money has always fascinated the human race; we often use it as a medium to buy or exchange. We tend to use the words money and currency interchangeably, but we should understand the basic definition first.According to Britannica, “Money is a commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange.” Merriam-Webster explains currency as “something (such as coins, treasury notes, and banknotes) that is in circulation as a medium of exchange.”
Before 770 B.C., the trade of goods and services was primarily through the barter system, and then coins were introduced. We moved from Stones, Gold, Bronze, Copper, Silver, other metals, paper, and plastic with generations. In the twenty-first century, money became virtual with the evolution of mobile transfer, and by 2009 we first came across Bitcoin (cryptocurrency). According to CoinMarketCap, the entire crypto market is worth more than 2 trillion USD, while Bitcoin holds the largest market share. As of May 2022, the total number of different cryptocurrencies is 10,308.
Investopedia defines cryptocurrency as a digital or virtual currency secured by cryptography, making it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.
