(Illustration: Jovani Pérez)
After spending several days shrouded in uncertainty due to the crisis that was experienced in the world of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin finally managed to take a breath of air after returningthis Friday to the barrier of $ 30,000, this after having been all week below that figure.
Bitcoin was the firstcryptocurrency to hit the market. Devised by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, this digital currency promoted a libertarian ideal and sought to put traditional monetary and financial institutions in check after the global financial crisis that year.
Bitcoin (BTC) uses cryptography to ensure that its operations are not regulated by any banking institution or body, which in turn has put the currency in the middle of a debate about its volatility, since by not requiring intermediaries it has been accused of facilitating illegal activities such as fraud.
It was on January 3, 2009 when bitcoin finally went live with a batch of 50 coins known as “the genesis block”, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto himself. According to the official record, there are currently 19 millionbitcoinsin circulation.
Although this cryptocurrency was worth almost nothing when it started, it soon reached the barrier of $ 1,000 and began to capture the attention of financial institutions; however, a hack to the MtGox platform, where up to 80% of the units in circulation were exchanged, caused a collapse in its value.
The bitcon has come to be worth up to 68789.63 dollars, also influenced by comments from characters such as Elon Musk, which has made it the most important cryptocurrency despite the fact that organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) do not see it as an alternative.
Despite the skepticism, there are those who have opted for bitcoin: El Salvador became the first country to adopt this cryptocurrency as a legal currency on June 9, 2021 and Honduras Próspera, a special autonomous central American zone, has also done the same.
Bitcoin cryptocurrency quote
The keys to bitcoin. (Illustration: Anayeli Tapia)
The bitcoin quote for today, May 20, is $30,196.67, which means that the cryptocurrency registered a positive change of2.36%in the last day.
On the other hand, it registered a change of -0.87% with respect to its value an hour ago. As for its popularity based on market capitalization, it ranks number one.
All about cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are ceasing to be alien elements and have begun to get intoeveryday language,arousing the interest of those who care about finances or even reaching the point of being legalized in some regions of the world.
As the name implies, cryptocurrencies use cryptographic or encryption methods to carry out transactions in a decentralized system and, most of them, through blockchains, which distances it from traditional models where banks function as intermediaries.
Its innovation has caused many people to be interested in investing in digital currencies, as their value has grown considerably in recent years with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin being the most popular and the ones with the largest capitalization in the market.
Each of these units are founded through a process called “mining” and users can acquire them through various agents or cryptocurrency exchanges, then store them in “crypto wallets” or make various transactions with them through unique keys.
File. Souvenir tokens representing the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and the Ethereum network are immersed in the water in this illustration, taken on May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Although it was in 2009 when bitcoin entered the market as the first cryptocurrency in the world, the truth is that these are barely experiencing a boom in the financial field, so it is expected that their use will increase in the near future.
Cryptocurrencies have different characteristics that make them unique: not being regulated by any institution; not to require third parties in transactions; and almost always use accounting blocks (blockchain)to prevent new cryptocurrencies from being created illegally or transactions already made from being altered.
However, by not having regulators such as a central bank or similar entities, they are accused of not being reliable, of being volatile, of promoting fraud, not having a legal framework that supports their users, allowing the operation of illegal activities, among others.
Although it could be a paradox, in turn cryptocurrencies guarantee security to their miners in terms of the network in which it is located (lattice) and that implies a handling of codes; hacking this security is possible but not so easyto achieve, because whoever tried it would have to have a computational power superior even to that of Google itself.
Those who invest in this type of digital assets must be very clear that this form brings with it a high risk to capital, because, just as there may be an increase, it can also unexpectedly have a collapse and end the savings of its users.
To store them, users must have a digital wallet or wallet, which is actually a software through which it is possible to save, send and make transactions of cryptocurrencies. In reality, this type of wallet only keeps the keys that mark the ownership and right of a person over a certain cryptocurrency, so these codes are the ones that should actually be protected.
