Steemit Crypto Academy Week 14 by @levycore : Learning About Cryptocurrency.

I am grateful to the @steemit blog for another great opportunity to learn about cryptocurrency again this week and I am really grateful to @levycore the professor whose assignment I am working on for this explicit and interesting topic he has assigned for this week.

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The fundamental difference between cryptocurrency and the conventional financial systems.

The invention of cryptocurrency brought a drastic change in the way people used to understand the concept of financial exchange, the conventional financial system is totally controlled by government regulations while that cryptocurrency is a totally decentralized system where government manipulations cannot operate.

I will also love to mention that transactions in the conventional financial systems are usually based on intermediaries and this often gives room for a high volume of transaction charges on the customers but the reverse is the case in the use of cryptocurrency, there is no need for an intermediary in order for a successful transaction to be complete and of course that also gives room for little or no transactional charges involved in the entire process.

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Why is a decentralized system needed?

There is a high level of corruption in place in different countries, people walk away freely after committing a crime because those behind the multiple crimes committed are usually the ones in power. A decentralized system will take away power from the hands of the centralized dictators and create a system of transparency and justice. With a decentralized system, we know that there is nothing hidden to the public, the case of constant theft and mismanagement of public funds will be brought to a complete end.

What affects the value of cryptocurrencies?

There are several possible factors that affect the value of the cryptocurrency at a certain time, I will mention some of them briefly.

One of them is the speculation by major investors, the current tweet by Elon Musk is a good example that can be used to describe this scenario. When Elon tweeted about how good cryptocurrency is and how Tesla would begin to accept it as a means of payment, the price of Bitcoin went up as more people believed in it but the moment Elon announced that Tesla would no longer be accepting cryptocurrency as a means of payment, we all know how well the price went down. Giant investors who are trying to record some quick profits for themselves could give strong speculation that will adversely affect the market.

Hacking is another issue that could affect the price of cryptocurrency, when there is an attempted hack or a successful hack into a cryptocurrency exchange or wallet, this news is always followed by a market crash which isn’t always a minor one.

The announcement of a new currency also affects the value of cryptocurrency since the usual human nature loves to try out new things and trying out something new would mean value would leave some old coin and then be transferred to new ones, this has a lot to say about how there could be a sudden change in value of cryptocurrencies.

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Why can’t everyone be a miner?

I really feel everyone cannot become a miner because of the high cost of mining, the equipment required for mining is extremely expensive and cannot just be easily afforded by anyone. Mining also requires high energy which means looking for a highly connected energy source and footing the bill of such high electric power will also be extremely high.

Considering the risk involved in spending so much money in order to start mining and then risk losing it all due to extremely volatile cryptocurrency prices will definitely make anyone have a re-think about becoming a cryptocurrency miner.

Why can cryptocurrency transactions be called more transparent?

The ledger with which cryptocurrency transactions are carried out is usually not one that can be tampered with, it can also not be erased by anyone at all. For any alteration to be done on a single ledger, every other blockchain ledger needs to also be changed and this is highly impossible. Even if there is a fraudulent transaction carried out on the blockchain, it cannot be erased or tampered with, there is always a great level of transparency.

The development of cryptocurrency in my country.

The development and growth of cryptocurrency in my country Nigeria has remained a very big problem, the government of my country is trying really hard to hinder the growth of cryptocurrency and even at some point this year ordered banks to identify and block the accounts of anyone who is involved in cryptocurrency transactions.

Conclusion.

Once again, I will love to appreciate @steemitblog for this very amazing initiative also I will like to appreciate @levycore, the professor in charge of this assignment who is very much assisted by @alphafx.