Crypto Beginner's Guide: Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies

The crisis of 2008 revealed all the shortcomings of the existing financial system. The inability of the authorities to cope with the current situation has led to the fact that people no longer trust fiat. 

There was a need for an alternative, and Bitcoin, which appeared in 2009, became such an alternative. 

What is Bitcoin?

Unlike the policy of the authorities, who prefer to turn on the money machine in case of crises, thereby increasing the money supply and provoking an increase in inflation, the issue of Bitcoin is limited to 21 million BTC. 

Every 4 years, the issue of Bitcoin decreases by 2 times. Bitcoin halving is taking place. And if initially, the miners received 50 BTC for each block extracted, now the reward for the block is 6.25BTC. The last halving of bitcoin occurred in 2020, the next one will be in 2024. 

The deflationary nature of Bitcoin is an excellent tool that increases the demand in BTC and contributes to the growth of the asset price as the crypto community increases.

People liked the idea of Bitcoin and its gradual adoption around the world so much that literally in a short time a huge number of cryptocurrencies appeared. 

According to the data of Сoinmarketcap  at the moment there are more than 20K cryptocurrencies and their number is steadily growing. However, not all cryptocurrencies are equally useful and necessary for people. 

What is Ethereum?

The second most capitalized cryptocurrency is Ethereum. The main difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin is that it is possible to create smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, which gives huge opportunities for creating various decentralized applications (dApps)  in almost all spheres of activity. 

Thanks to smart contracts, DeFi projects and NFT have been developed, which in turn provide almost endless opportunities for their users, making cryptocurrency assets accessible to everyone.

Now there are many blockchains with smart contracts that are faster and cheaper than Ethereum, but Ethereum was the first one and at the very moment has the most developed ecosystem and the largest number of users and dApps located on it. 

What are Stablecoins?

Among cryptocurrencies, a special place is occupied by stablecoins. These are cryptocurrencies that are backed by a certain asset of the physical world. It can be the US dollar, any other currency or any other assets (gold, oil, shares etc). 

The most important thing for stablecoin users is to be sure that the stablecoin is actually backed by an asset. The most popular stablecoin - Tether ranks third in capitalization after Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The main influencers in crypto industry

Cryptocurrency provides huge opportunities for users. Here is just a list of the most influential billionaires who made their fortune on cryptocurrencies and blockchain:

• Satoshi Nakamoto
• Sam Bankman-Fried
• Michael J. Saylor
• Vitalik Buterin
• Changpeng Zhao
• Winklevoss Brothers
• Justin Sun
• Chris Larsen

How to buy cryptocurrency

People are increasingly using cryptocurrency due to an unstable economy and a falling local currencies, but the most important is how easy and secure it is to buy digital assets. Thanks to  OWNR Wallet, you can now buy cryptocurrency for different fiat with your credit/debit card (Buying crypto with OWNR Wallet: illustrated guide).