Age Of Money And Cryptocurrency

Every person who knows what is money and what money can do they are in the process to get more money to fulfil their needs and wants. Money can buy everything in this world. Some people can contradict my statement. I want to question them won't you be happy with more money. Some people can also say “ Marera Lanu K Cha ra” we cannot die with money. But money can save lives please don’t forget that. “ Sadak Ma Basera Runu Bhanda BMW Ma basera Rumla k Tha runai Naparos ” is my statement but I don’t praise doing the wrong thing to earn money you should have ethics, integrity and honesty while earning money and no one should be hurt.

 Now I want to talk about how money exists, how the economy depends upon money and the hot topic called Cryptocurrency.

First of all, we have to know the evolution of money, Back in those days the barter system used to happen means exchange of product no currency was in existence but if a product did not match with the need of another person from whom we need a product, then there appear problem. To solve this problem gold coin was introduced where the gold coin in exchange for a product but due to the huge increase in trade, carrying huge gold coin was a problem. To solve this problem Government Issues currency notes whose value was linked with gold. Later due to growth in business and country, demands for their currency, which should have, value then there comes new terms called Fait Money concept where the value of money directly depends upon demand and supply of money. After this long evolution of money there arise one problem on this fiat money concept, that is the whole power of circulation of money was held with the government, which means the government can print as much money as they wanted. Irrespective of the fact that person in the power have integrity and honesty that person can destroy the economy by printing huge amount of money which lead to hyperinflation just like in Venezuela where the inflation rate is increased to 5,37,98,500% approx. in between 2016 to 2019. Can you imagine? Do you know there is an existence of a banknote of 10M just like we have RS 1000 value note they have 10,00,000 value note? To solve this problem some institutions, programmer and individual comes with an idea of Cryptocurrencies, which starts with Bitcoin introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto. We will talk about bitcoin in another article. In this article, we will talk about cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency:

 A cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) is a digital currency that can be used to buy goods and services but uses an online ledger with strong cryptography to secure online transactions. Much of the interest in these unregulated currencies is to trade for profit, with speculators at times driving prices skyward.

 A cryptocurrency is a form of payment that can be exchanged online for goods and services. Many companies have issued their currencies, often called tokens, and these can be traded specifically for the goods or services that the company provides. Think of them as you would arcade tokens or casino chips. You will need to exchange real currency for the cryptocurrency to access the goods or services.

Cryptocurrencies work using a technology called the blockchain. Blockchain is a decentralized technology spread across many computers that manage and records transactions. Part of the appeal of this technology is its security.

Blockchain Technology:

Blockchain, sometimes referred to as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), makes the history of any digital asset unalterable and transparent using decentralization and cryptographic hashing.  

A simple analogy for understanding blockchain technology is a Google Doc. When we create a document and share it with a group of people, the document is distributed instead of copied or transferred. This creates a decentralized distribution chain that gives everyone access to the document at the same time. No one is locked out awaiting changes from another party, while all modifications to the doc are being recorded in real-time, making changes completely transparent.

Of course, blockchain is more complicated than a Google Doc, but the analogy is apt. Blockchain is an especially promising and revolutionary technology because it helps reduce risk, stamps out fraud and brings transparency in a scalable way for myriad uses. 

Advantages of Cryptocurrency:

1. No Intermediary: One of the advantages of cryptocurrency transactions is that they are one-to-one affairs, taking place on a peer-to-peer networking structure that makes “cutting out the middle man” a standard practice. This leads to greater clarity in establishing audit trails, less confusion over who should pay what to whom, and greater accountability, in that the two parties involved in a transaction each know who they are.
2. Easy Asset Transfers: One financial analyst describes the cryptocurrency blockchain as resembling a “large property rights database,” which can on one level be used to execute and enforce two-party contracts on commodities like automobiles or real estate. However, the blockchain cryptocurrency ecosystem may also be used to facilitate specialist modes of transfer. For example, cryptocurrency contracts can be designed to add third-party approvals, refer to external facts, or be completed at a specified date or time in the future. In addition, since you, as the cryptocurrency holder has exclusive governance of your account, this minimizes the time and expense involved in making asset transfers.
3. Confidentiality: Another one of the great advantages of cryptocurrency is that each transaction you make is a unique exchange between two parties, the terms of which may be negotiated and agreed upon in each case. What’s more, the exchange of information is done on a “push” basis, whereby you can transmit exactly what you wish to send to the recipient – and nothing besides that. This guards the privacy of your financial history and protects you from the threat of account or identity theft, which is greater under the traditional system, where your information may be exposed at any point in the transaction chain.
4. Where there is the Internet there is cryptocurrency: Digital data transfer and the internet are the media facilitating the exchange in cryptocurrencies. Therefore, these services are potentially available to anyone who has a viable data connection, some knowledge of the cryptocurrency networks on offer, and ready access to their relevant websites and portals. It is estimated that there are currently about 3.5 billion individuals across the world who have access to the Internet or mobile phones but do not currently have access to traditional systems of banking or exchange. The cryptocurrency ecosystem holds the potential to make asset transfer and transaction processing available to this vast market of willing consumers – once the required infrastructure (digital and regulatory) is put in place.
5. Easier international trade in future: Though largely unrecognized as legal tender on national levels at present, cryptocurrencies by their very nature are not subject to the exchange rates, interest rates, transactions charges, or other levies imposed by a specific country. In addition, using the peer-to-peer mechanism of blockchain technology, cross-border transfers and transactions may be conducted without complications over currency exchange fluctuations, and the like.
6. More power to people: In a traditional banking or credit card system, you effectively turn stewardship of your funds over to a third party that can exercise the power of life or death over your assets. Accounts may be closed without notice for infringements of a financial institution’s Terms of Service – requiring you as the account holder to jump through hoops to get yourself back into the system. Perhaps the greatest of all advantages of cryptocurrency is that unless you have delegated management of your wallet over to a third-party service, you are the sole owner of the corresponding private and public encryption keys that make up your cryptocurrency network identity or address.
7. Adaptability: There are currently over 1200 unique cryptocurrencies or altcoins in circulation worldwide. Many are quite ephemeral, but a significant proportion has been created for specific use cases that illustrate the flexibility of the cryptocurrency phenomenon. For example, there are “privacy coins” which help mask your identity on the blockchain, and supply chain tokens, which can facilitate supply chain operations for various types of industries. 
8. Strong Security: Once a cryptocurrency transfer has been authorized, it cannot be reversed as in the case of the “charge-back” transactions allowed by credit card companies. This is a hedge against fraud, which requires a specific agreement to be made between a buyer and seller regarding refunds in the event of a mistake or returns policy. Finally, the strong encryption techniques employed throughout the distributed ledger (blockchain) and cryptocurrency transaction processes are a safeguard against fraud and account tampering, and guarantors of consumer privacy.
9. Solve the problem of Duplicate Currency and Control in supply: Some group or institution can easily print duplicate note and can circulate easily but Due to computer-generated currency, no one can make duplicate currency just like that, which was a big problem with paper currency. In addition, there is control in supply in this currency so that government cannot get as much cryptocurrency as they want just as only 21 million bitcoin can only be circulated not more than that. There is 18 million bitcoin in circulation remaining 3 million is yet to mine. 

 

One interesting fact I also want to discuss is “Bitcoin and Dogecoin link with Elon Musk”

In recent times Tesla CEO Elon Musk continuously tweets over cryptocurrency mainly in respect of bitcoin and recently more aggressively about dogecoin. Due to these tweets, the price of bitcoin and dogecoin is continuously increasing. Due to this now, bitcoin has more than 1 trillion dollars market capitalization and dogecoin has more than 63 Billion dollars market capitalization with this both coin give 96% and 9700% return this year. Unbelievable!

 

Cryptocurrency in Nepal:

 According to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act and 2019, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, Nepal Rastra Bank has officially declared Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as illegal forms of financial tender. In 2017, the Central Investigation Bureau even arrested two individuals for running Bitcoin mining and exchange operations. However, some people indirectly holds these cryptocurrencies by way of different means. 

  Cryptocurrency In Global Level:

 According to the survey, 33% of Nigerians either using or owning cryptocurrency, which is the highest rate. The second and third highest rates of cryptocurrency use in the survey were recorded in Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively. Again, remittance payments play a role in the widespread use of cryptocurrency. According to bitcoin.com, the Philippines' Central Bank has approved several crypto exchanges to operate as "remittance and transfer companies" in the country. The government itself is already meddling in cryptocurrency by setting up blockchain app bonds.ph with Unionbank to distribute government bonds. Unionbank has also installed a Bitcoin ATM in Makati (Metro Manila), showing how cryptocurrencies are slowly entering the mainstream in the country.

In addition to users in Africa and Southeast Asia, one more world region where many cryptocurrency users are located in Latin America. Peru leads adoption with 16 per cent of respondents, while Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Chile all reached double digits. Switzerland was the country with the highest adoption rate in Europe together with Greece (11 per cent each). In general, European and Anglo nations had very low levels of adoption.

Japan, finally, was the country in the survey where the fewest people said they used or owned cryptocurrency. Only four per cent said they had experience with crypto products, the lowest in the survey together with Denmark.

Conclusion:

In my view, Cryptocurrency is a very vast and advanced technology as I already counted you all the advantages of these cryptocurrencies. I now believe that our Rastra Bank should increase its strength and should try to regulate cryptocurrency in Nepal by applying different means because cryptocurrency is an emerging technology and with emerging technology there comes a major change in civilization and we have to be up-to-date and initiate how to get maximum benefit.