What are digital currencies?

10 of the best digital currencies to invest in 2024

Diversify investment in digital currencies

What are digital currencies?

Cryptocurrencies are a type of “digital financial asset” or “cryptocurrency.” It does not exist in physical form (as is the case with traditional currencies such as the dollar and euro). Cryptocurrencies are not regulated or managed by any financial authorities or banks in the same way as traditional currencies, but are mostly self-regulated, through the use of various cryptographic technologies. 

In addition, these operations are organized over the Internet, where users in the associated networks verify and confirm the occurrence of these transactions.

The emergence of what we now know as digital currencies (or cryptocurrencies) began in 2009, and it all began with the launch of Bitcoin, the first digital currency. Bitcoin was originally proposed as an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof.

Cryptographic proof came from the emerging technology of blockchain - a type of list of digital signatures that provides mathematical proofs describing the entire transaction history of each bitcoin.

This publicly owned chain allows peer-to-peer transactions, without any need to entrust a third party with the task of processing the payment. There is no need for any type of third party acting in a supervisory role