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How can I use cryptocurrency?

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Alex Cickort
How can I use cryptocurrency?

We get that bitcoin and etherium are revolutionary, but what are the benefits of cryptocurrencies in practice? What makes cryptocurrencies useful is not so much the goods you can buy with them, but the riddance to the problems they solve. Therein lies the core value they provide to the end consumer. It's no coincidence that the most valuable cryptocurrencies are innovative.

Take bitcoin, which has revolutionized the way we transact and store value by allowing us to send money to anyone, anytime, anywhere, without any permission.

Like any great idea, bitcoin has had several followers at once, eager to improve on what it has achieved. Players such as lightcoin, Dash, IOTA, and Ripple have quickly entered the scene, offering faster, lower-cost transactions, improved scalability, and energy efficiency.

While in some ways these altcoins struggle to become the most popular payment system of all, nuances have kept them in different markets. For example, Monero is a tracker-proof cryptocurrency with anonymous transactions, allowing users to keep their transactions private and maintain a balance without fear of third parties finding out.

How to use?

The first and most obvious use of cryptocurrencies is for payments, and the list of companies that accept bitcoin to pay for goods and services is growing, with ATMs with withdrawal functionality located all over the world. A race has begun to create a standard form of payment using cryptocurrency debit cards, such as Bitpay, which will allow their holders to pay for purchases through regular terminals in stores.

While all this is great, blockchain technology is not limited to the financial sphere. It can be used to solve the many problems that exist in today's digital world. That's why we can now see hundreds of new projects with really incredible ideas.

Following the etherium, dozens of smart contract platforms have been created, offering innovative solutions to problems related to agriculture, medicine, IT, logistics, and almost any other sector.

For example, Sia allows you to rent out unused hard drive space. In exchange for connecting this empty space to the blockchain, you will receive some Siacoin, the project's own cryptocurrency.

The difference between coins and tokens should be noted here. Coins exist solely as a form of digital money on their own blockchains. Bitcoin and lightcoin are prime examples of coins.

The usefulness of cryptocurrency

Tokens occupy a different niche and serve alternative purposes - for example, representing a digital asset, a share, a fee for using the system, etc. Dragonchain, Waltonchain and Civic are ERC20 tokens. This means that they exist in the etherium blockchain, and they all serve the relevant utilities provided by the project.

It is important to note that the usefulness of a cryptocurrency is its main characteristic: if a token has a practical use and solves an existing problem, it is likely to rise in value.

That said, many useless coins ended up gaining more than they should have. For example, Dogecoin was originally a joke cryptocurrency without any value or real market application. With a market capitalization of about $600 million. (as of this writing), it may be the most profitable joke in the world.

Despite some low-quality (or hype) projects, it is fair to say that cryptocurrencies do not exist in a vacuum, but depend on the value of the decentralized application, platform or blockchain on which they are based.

After reflecting on what you've read, you'll likely begin to realize that cryptocurrency is just a great idea. So why has it been ten years and we're still not buying hamburgers for bitcoins?

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This information is not quite enough to fully describe cryptocurrencies, but we plan to continue to do so on Techsite. Subscribe and stay tuned for more Artex Global news. We will publish only useful information for you!

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