More than a trading opportunity

IMAGINE this: What if someone invented a currency that is free from any government scrutiny, that is accessible to all, and most importantly, is readily available on your Internet-linked handheld device(s)?

Enter cryptocurrencies, which include the likes of Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple and perhaps the most popular, Bitcoins.

The latter’s origins can be traced to the wreckage of the 2007- 2008 Global Financial Crisis when Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym of an anonymous programmer (or a group of programmers) wrote a white paper that year outlining the mathematical theory of a peer-to-peer currency, which in 2009, eventually evolved into what we now know as the Bitcoin software.

These Bitcoins rely on strong cryptography to create them as well as to keep them secure ( hence the term cryptocurrency). They are also open-source, meaning no one controls or owns them and that anyone can monitor every transaction through their own computers.

Initially, Bitcoin was a plaything by cryptography geeks, but it ultimately gained traction when some of them started trading it in 2010.

However, trading cryptocurrencies tends to be volatile.

From near $ 0 in its early years, Bitcoin’s value went up over the years, reaching its peak in December last year at almost $20,000 apiece. Its value has later fallen about 70% and below the $10,000 mark amid concerns of increased regulation in developed economies such as South Korea and China. Since then, its price hovered around $10,000 apiece.