Fascinating cryptocurrency facts everyone should know

Cryptocurrencies have probably come into the mainstream a lot more over the last year, more than in any year before 2020. However, they are still a huge mystery to many people, especially those who do not have a great understanding of the financial sector.

It is therefore extremely important for investor education programs to be introduced, alongside plans to increase investment in the industry from regular people, for the industry to be successful in the long-term.

People are extremely unlikely to put their money in something they do not understand, whether that is the man on the street or a multi-millionaire, so it is essential that crypto is made a lot less confusing, and therefore made more accessible.

With that being said, there are some facts and nuances about cryptocurrencies that even the most hardcore crypto geeks may not know, and we have presented some of them here.

The quantity of Bitcoin is limited

One of the biggest reasons behind Bitcoin’s stunning price rise is that the quantity of bitcoin is limited. That was the concept behind its creation – for it to be distributed based on ‘mining’, and not controlled by a central bank which would just print more whenever needed. Thus, with shrinking supply and rocketing demand, it is easy to see how the price of bitcoin is likely to continue shooting upwards.

Crypto was responsible for the most expensive pizza purchase ever 

Cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have been extremely volatile in terms of price since their creation, and this has led to some wild fluctuations on the markets. This has also led some people to become multi-millionaires, while others have been left ruing the day they sold their Bitcoin, right before it shot up by many orders of magnitude.

This is also the reason for one of the wackiest stories involving cryptocurrencies. It was actually the first crypto transaction to take place in the real world, i.e. not online, when Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoin for two pizzas, on 22nd May 2010.

Given the price of bitcoin at the time, this came to about £25, and he was able to find a pizza delivery place in the UK that accepted Bitcoin as payment. Of course, given the crazy price rise that Bitcoin has seen, that pizza order is worth over 35 million dollars today, and this crazy story is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza day every year by the crypto community.

Crypto is great for gaming and gambling

The underlying blockchain technology on which most cryptocurrencies run has many other uses, one of which is to make games and gaming better.

Many game developers are working on ideas where their games can be made more efficient and easy to run if a blockchain is used, due to the nature of blockchain networks and their ability to store large amounts of data.

This year cryptocurrencies themselves are also seeing a lot of interest in the online gaming market, specifically in online gambling, where there are a number of online casinos, also called crypto casinos, which give users the option to place bets using crypto rather than fiat currencies.

This is a great way for crypto owners to use and perhaps even increase their holdings, while it is also attracting new users to the market, due to the popularity of online gambling with cryptocurrencies.

The identity of Bitcoin’s creator is still unknown

One would think that someone who came up with the idea for Bitcoin, which has led to the cryptocurrency industry and all the various changes that it has brought, would be venerated and celebrated. However, that has not been the case, simply because his identity is still unknown.

He or she is only known as Satoshi Nakamoto, which is the pseudonym for the creator/creators of Bitcoin. However, the group or individual does not claim ownership of Bitcoin, which has allowed it to thrive and become a global phenomenon today.

Of course, it is rumored that this person or group of people owns over 1 billion bitcoin, which would make them among the wealthiest people in the world at Bitcoin’s current price.

The popularity and scope of cryptocurrencies can be seen from the fact that there are more than 5000 cryptocurrencies in circulation all over the world.

Of course, the majority of these are obscure, but there are also many opportunities for people to recognize the next big coin, and become millionaires as a result. Many of these have odd and catchy names as well to attract attention, including PizzaCoin, DogeCoin and Coinye.