Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S2W1 - How Cryptocurrency has Shaped the Financial Realm. What is Its Future? by @tamighty

Good day everyone here. Today I join the Steemit Engagement Challenge. I know I have missed so much as I couldn't participate at all last month but I could not help the situation that came my way, which made me not to participate. Nevertheless, I am happy because nothing is going to hold me back this time. Every little time I get, I would do any of contests from the selected communities. In the Steemit Crypto Academy, we have been told to write on the how cryptocurrency have shaped the financial realm and what the future holds for digital money. My write ups on this topic will be under the following as expected by the team of admins and moderators of the academy

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Users are expected to briefly give an overview of cryptocurrency.

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Cryptocurrency also know as digital currency or digital asset are virtually money that can be transferred from one person to the other with wallets or addresses that have been cryptographically structured. As virtually assets, they can only be seen but not touched and are only exchanged between their traders and investors.

Cryptocurrencies are majorly found in centralized and decentralized exchanges where they can be bought, traded or invested. They can be converted to fiat money or local currencies but they only exist on those exchanges or some wallets.

Cryptocurrencies can be divided majorly into two but they are all called digital assets. The two groups of cryptocurrency are the coins
and the tokens.

Coins are cryptocurrencies that are directly used to back a project. Investors of the projects but the coins to make the project to keep thriving and gaining grounds. Examples of coins are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Binance coin, etc.

Tokens on the other hand are cryptocurrencies which are used to back projects which exist under the projects of a coin. There are usually more than one projects which exist under another project which are the parent projects. This means they do not have their blockchains but exist under the blockchains of other projects. For instance, the Polkadot project has many projects under it and all of these projects have their token they use in running their projects. Some. examples of tokens are the fan tokens; PSG, ATM, JUV, OC and so on. Others are SOS, Chainlink, BAKE, CAKE, TWT, etc.

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Draw a comparison between cryptocurrency and conventional currencies.

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Cryptocurrency is very similar to the conventional currencies used in different part of the world because it is a medium of exchange.
Though there are differences in there mode of operation, they are all out to make the exchange of goods and services easy.

Let's see below some of the comparisons between these two kind of currencies.

CRYPTOCURRENCY	CONVENTIONAL CURRENCIES
They are virtual asset that cannot be touched and felt	They are hard currencies and physical money that can be touched and felt
They can only accessed through the internet on exchanges	They can be accessed through banks and financial organizations of a country.
Cryptocurrency have both centralized and decentralized media of exchange.	Conventional currencies have only centralized medium of exchange.
Cryptocurrency use blockchain technology in their transactions	Conventional currencies do not use blockchain technology.
Owners of cryptocurrency have full control of them even when they are kept in wallets and exchanges.	Owners of conventional currencies have no control of them when kept in financial institution.
They are kept in secure digital wallets	They are kept in secure accounts
Cryptocurrency are of different types and are accepted and can be used for transactions between two persons in any part of the globe.	Conventional currencies are only accepted if the currency is common to both parties in a transaction and cannot be used in all part of the globe.
They can be accessed anytime of the day when needed.	They are not readily accessible to owners.

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Explain the distinctive innovations of cryptocurrency and its downsides.

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Cryptocurrency came at a time when the conventional currency transaction had a lot of fault and couldn't meet up with the daily demands of people who wished to make transactions. These made the developers brought in many innovative ideas that would allow the transactions of cryptocurrency to be easily done. One of such important innovation is blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology is the backbone of all cryptocurrencies transactions. Every transaction done in the cryptocurrency space is part of a block that is connected to several blocks that preceeds and succeeds it thus making the transaction details to always been available on request.

One major innovation of the cryptocurrency is allowing person to person transactions without third party interference. This has made it possible for most crypto transactions to be completed within few seconds. Speed of transaction is greatly enhanced because of the elimination of third party in transactions involving cryptocurrency.

Also, in crypto transactions, no one really knows who in the blockchain. Majorly, all transactions are represented with transaction ID. This makes everyone private entity, not known to any one. This protects the privacy of everyome involved in cryptocurrency transactions.

From the innovative feature of the Blockchain technology, we see that information about transactions in the crypto space cannot be lost. All previous transactions are kept safe and can be gotten if information about transaction is needed.

Downside of Cryptocurrency

There is a saying that everything that has advantage must have disadvantage. Cryptocurrency is not an exception to this statement. Some of the downside of cryptocurrency is.

• They are not regulated
  Every cryptocurrency is backed by a projects and once the white paper is prepared and the modes of it operation are well defined, they can begin to operate and sell in the cryptocurrency markets. Though the movement of BTC affects all the cryptos, the price of Bitcoin does not totally regulate the price of any coin or token

• Cryptocurrencies are very volatile
  This makes them dangerous to trade or hold. There can be a sudden fall or increase in price which may affect a trader or an investor either positively or negatively.

• They have a sophisticated means of operation.
  One has to be very smart or intelligent and digitally inclined to do crypto trading investments or trading. Anyone who is still analogue in operation of sophisticated technology will will find it difficult.

• The loss of the Private Key of a crypto wallet is the end of the assets in that wallet
  This calls for one to keep the private keys safe. No matter the amount of the cryptocurrency kept in a wallet, once the private key is lost, the asset is lost.

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How do you think major problems with cryptocurrency can be handled? Let this be a response to the downsides highlighted earlier.

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There is a solution to every problem faced. The problems or downsides of cryptos can be solved. The solution to the above problems are:

Cryptography and blockchain technology experts should find a way to regulate the price of cryptocurrencies. They should give a uniform list of what can affect the price of these cryptos so one can be aware of what is next to happen.

The volatility level of every cryptocurrency should be regulated too. They can set a coin or token between how low it can fall or high it can go after a certain level of decline or uptrend. Thus curbing the situation of having to lose all.

There should be training put in place for all crypto lovers and even the analogue individuals to learn and understand the sophisticated nature of cryptocurrency transactions. They should make it easy too.

A means of retrieving one's assets should be put in place to avoid total loss of assets due to the loss of crypto assets due to loss of private keys or passwords.

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Do you believe in the future of cryptocurrency? State your reasons. Any Recommendations?

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Cryptocurrency has a future in the financial structure of this world and I believe in it 100%. With all the feats that blockchain technology have attained in the world today, the future of cryptocurrency is assured. The reasons why I have this believe are.

• Cryptocurrency is gradually being accepted as a medium of exchange in leading countries of the world e.g USA, China and Japan. In this countries, goods but can be paid with bitcoin.

• The speed with which transactions are completed on blockchain. The speed at which transactions are completed is topnotch. Every blockchain is making adjustment to offer the most scalable blockchain.

• The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency transactions . Everyone want to see that he knows what and where the assets are at each point in time. Crypto makes this possible.

• The security of cryptocurrency assets. Cryptocurrency offers the best form of security of one's fund through the power of blockchain technology.

• There is no distance barrier with cryptocurrency transactions on the earth space. From anywhere in the world and at any time, with internet network, crypto transactions can be done.

With all these reasons and some I could not remember to mention, the future of cryptocurrency is guaranteed. Soon, in major developed countries, crypto will be the major medium of exchange.

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