Why The Hell Are They Called ‘Crypto’ currencies?
It has been quite a while now, we have been reading and hearing a lot about rising and falling prices of Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, and other such popular Cryptocurrencies. But have we really paid attention to why the word “Crypto” is associated with them? Also, many people today just refer to them as Crypto rather than Cryptocurrencies. So, it’s about time when we know why the hell “Crypto”?
The underlying technology of all Cryptocurrencies existing today (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Zcash, Dash, etc.) is Blockchain. People who understand Blockchain or have studied something about it know that Blockchain is heavily dependent on different Cryptographic primitives like Hash Functions, Asymmetric Key Cryptography, Merkle Tree, Digital Signatures, Ring Signatures, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, etc.
Many Blockchain properties like immutability (tamper-proofing), data security, privacy, etc. are derived from these Cryptographic primitives it uses. Without Cryptography, Blockchain technology will collapse or would not have all of its amazing properties (which makes it unique and useful). So, Cryptography being one of the most important components of Blockchain (and Blockchain being the underlying tech of these Cryptocurrencies) the term “Crypto” was picked up and eventually it stuck (let's agree, it’s quite catchy).
I will quickly take this opportunity to also explain the “currency” part of it, and that’s because although we have been using regular fiat currencies (Dollars, Pounds, Rupees, etc.) for all our lives, many of us still don’t really know what currency really means.
“Currency is something (or anything) which is currently acceptable by a group of individuals/organizations/groups, etc.”
Any thing can be considered as a currency as far as there are people who are ready to accept it in exchange of other commodities, goods or services. Other people might not think of it as currency and that’s perfectly fine. We generally have this notion that only fiat currencies (Dollars, Pounds, Rupees, etc.) or notes and coins printed and legalized by government of a country are currencies. But that’s not true, anything can be a currency between a certain set of people.
Cryptography is around since a very long time now and before Cryptocurrencies were famous, the term Crypto was normally referred for Cryptography (between mathematicians and other Cryptography enthusiasts). Today since Cryptocurrencies have gained so much popularity, Crypto has become more of a slang in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency community. So, don’t be shocked if you offend a mathematician someday for calling Cryptocurrencies as Crypto 😊.
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