What are crypto currencies?

 Introduction & interesting facts

• A cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange. 

• The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, and used SHA-256 as its proof-of-work scheme. 

• Later on, other major cryptocurrencies, such as Namecoin (an attempt at a decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very difficult), Litecoin (which uses scrypt as a proof-of-work, as well as having faster transaction confirmations) and Peercoin (which uses a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid, and has inflation of about 1%) were also created. Many other cryptocurrencies have been created, though not all have been successful, especially those that brought few innovations.

• Cryptocurrencys are at bottom specifications regarding the use of currency which seek to incorporate principles of cryptography to implement a distributed, decentralized and secure information economy. 

•  When comparing cryptocurrencys to fiat money, the most notable difference is in how no group or individual may gain any significant control over the production of money, instead only a certain amount of cryptocurrency can possibly be produced by the entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is always both prior defined and publicly known.

• In cryptocurrency systems the safety, integrity and balance of all ledgers is ensured by a swarm of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners who are for the most part general members of the public actively protecting the network by maintaining a high hash-rate difficulty for their chance at receiving a randomly distributed small fee. 

• Dozens of cryptocurrency specifications have been defined, most are similar to and derived from the first fully implemented cryptocurrency protocol, Bitcoin. 

•  Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually introduce new units of currency, placing an ultimate cap on the total amount of currency that will ever be in circulation. This is done both to mimic the scarcity (and value) of precious metals and to avoid hyperinflation.

•  Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies are less susceptible to seizure by law enforcement. Existing cryptocurrencies are all pseudonymous, though additions such as Zerocoin and its distributed laundry feature, or StableCoin and its mixed transaction feature have been suggested, which would allow for anonymity

• For the first couple years of existence, cryptocurrencies gradually gained attention from the media and public.Since 2011, interest has rapidly increased, especially during the rapid price rise of Bitcoin in April 2013.

•  Early attempts to integrate cryptography with electronic money were made by David Chaum, via DigiCash and ecash, which used cryptography to anonymise electronic money transactions, albeit with centralized issuing and clearing

•  The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are SHA-256, which was introduced by Bitcoin, and scrypt, which is used by currencies such as Litecoin.

•  Some cryptocurrencies, such as Peercoin, use a combined proof-of-work/proof-of-stake scheme.

• Some notable / major currencies as of November 2013 :Bitcoin,Litecoin,Peercoin,Namecoin,Novacoin

• Some popular minor coins currencies as of November 2013:Feathercoin,Anoncoin,Bitbar,Asiccoin,Terracoin,Tagcoin,Yacoin,Alphacoin.