This year’s Super Bowl featured a lot of commercials that advertised many products and services, as usual, but 2022 featured multiple ads for something called “cryptocurrency,” which many people have been trading for years. However, not everyone in the world is an expert on the subject or is even familiar with the concept. Many people walked away from the game, not focused on the game between the Rams and the Bengals, but instead wondered to themselves, “What is cryptocurrency?”

To answer that question, let’s look at the word itself. “Crypto” comes from the Greek kryptós, meaning “hidden” or “secret,” and the English word “currency,” meaning “a medium of exchange, most commonly money.” Secret money? That’s close, but that doesn’t really answer the question. 

Cryptocurrency, or crypto, is similar to other types of currency that we encounter every day, like the United States Dollar, the Peruvian Nuevo Sol, the Euro, or any of the other hundreds of currencies used in different countries around the world. It can be used to buy and sell items with other crypto users, and every day, more and more businesses have begun to accept cryptocurrency as payment for goods and services. But how does it work?

One of the most popular types of crypto and the oldest is called Bitcoin, which is what we’ll be using as an example going forward. Bitcoin was created in 2008 by a person or a group of people called Nakamoto, which is an alias. The actual creator of Bitcoin has remained anonymous all of these years, which is made possible by how Bitcoin works, which we’ll get into later. Bitcoin, like every other currency or investment, changes in value all the time; for the latest prices for Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and other types of crypto, please visit okx.com. 

Bitcoin is created, traded, and lives in something called The Blockchain, a series of computers all over the world that work together for the ultimate goal of providing secure transactions. People can trade Bitcoin, other crypto, NFTs, and other things through this network where they are identified only by a series of numbers – no names. This is one of the top selling points of crypto and probably the most important aspect: it allows people to buy, sell, and trade items completely anonymously, which makes it one of the few places online where two users can interact privately, without governments, police, nosy neighbors, or others watching over a user’s every move. That’s where the “crypto” (or hidden) part of the name comes into play.

There are some ways to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as physical payments to businesses or friends, such as crypto debit cards or payment stations at businesses that accept it as payment, but a majority of crypto transactions take place completely online and can be accessed by phone or computer by its rightful owner, making it more difficult to lose than a $50 bill sitting in a wallet. Many experts theorize that in 20 years, traditional currencies may be placed entirely by crypto. Why not get a head start and invest today?