What Is Cryptocurrency ?

A "Cryptocurrency" is a digital currency in which the transactions are verified and recorded by a system utilizing cryptography. Now that may seem foreign to you but in reality, if you have a bank account then you're already slightly familiar with the concept. When you send a friend $10 for gas using Apple Pay, Cash App, Zelle, or any other payment service, you're actually utilizing a digital form of currency! Your friend will receive that $10 almost instantly and be able to either transfer it to their bank account or use it immediately if they happen to be at a store that accepts digital payments (basically every store in the United States). This transaction would be digitally recorded and stored on the payment application's database as well as the store's payment processor's (whichever company processes all of their digital/card payments) database. A cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, essentially does that same thing, but it instead records and stores its transaction history on what we refer to as "the blockchain".