Cryptocurrencies are created by private individuals and small businesses. Their name is derived from cryptography, the encryption principle on which the currencies are based. <\/p>\n
The data is stored decentrally. On the one hand, this is the technical basis, and on the other hand, the prerequisite for dispensing with central bodies, as are necessary for other currencies. <\/p>\n
The idea for an exclusively digital currency already emerged in 1998 (for the history of cryptocurrencies<\/a>), ten years later the first concept for Bitcoin<\/a> was developed under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2009, the Bitcoin network was launched and the first 50 Bitcoins were mined. At that time, a coin had a value of less than a cent, today it is several thousand francs. <\/p>\n Two years after the introduction of Bitcoin, Litecoin, a second cryptocurrency, was developed, followed by a few more in the years that followed. From 2015, the \u201chype\u201d surrounding digital currencies began, and in 2018 there are already more than 1000. <\/p>\n