They came out of nowhere a few years ago, and we still don’t know how far they can go. Your listing is like a roller coaster. One day they break records, and the next day they drop 40%. What can we expect from cryptocurrencies?

Lately they are in all the controversies. After a few months in which Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and others have broken trading records, in a few days they have fallen more than 30% on average.

The reasons are varied. After praising them and approving their use to buy Tesla cars, Elon Musk stops accepting Bitcoins because they are highly polluting . Just a few days later, China prohibits doing economic operations with them. And since yesterday, Iran also prohibits the mining of cryptocurrencies due to its high consumption of electricity, which is causing cuts in large cities.

And if that were not enough, powerful graphics cards are needed to mine cryptocurrencies , so for months there has been no stock of cards because all miners buy them , and millions of people cannot renew their computer, or buy a new one.

The reality is that most of these attacks are right: mining cryptocurrencies consumes a lot of electricity and that leads to resource depletion, pollution, and even power outages in large cities .

They are very volatile and speculative securities . It is not acceptable for a cryptocurrency to rise or fall due to a tweet from Elon Musk, as has happened with Dogecoin. They are very risky investments except for the rich.

Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Filecoin … why are there more than 7,000 cryptocurrencies? Do they really have a utility beyond the intention of speculating on them and becoming a millionaire effortlessly? Let’s check it out.

What are cryptocurrencies for?

• What is a cryptocurrency?
• Buy in stores
• The dark side: drugs, arms trafficking …
• To make donations
• To help NGOs
• Payments between individuals
• Instant micropayments
• Charge for sharing your free hard drive
• His great legacy: the blockchain
• To buy NFTs and ensure their operation
• Avoid censorship and government abuse
• A safe haven against inflation

What is a cryptocurrency?: Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

To discover the true value of cryptocurrencies, you would first have to agree on what they are. Because depending on who you ask, they will tell you one thing or another.

Technically, a cryptocurrency is a chain of unique ones and zeros that the currency’s control system identifies as a token, an item that has value.

If you use that object to buy and sell, it is technically money, and its users assure it. A coin, in short, not unlike the crushed pieces of metal that were used as money thousands of years ago.

Covers with RFID and NFC protection for bank cards

These protective sleeves prevent unwanted payments on contactless cards that use RFID or NFC. Thieves will not be able to make charges by bringing a reader to your purse or purse.

The problem (or the blessing, depending on who you ask) is that cryptocurrencies are not regulated or endorsed by any bank or state , which is why they are so volatile. Many call them the currencies of the people or the people , because it is the people who create and give them value , without the intervention of the state, banks or companies.

As long as they are used to buy and sell, as long as someone pays more than they are worth to get them, their price will go up . But if they lose interest or panic, they can lose all their value in a matter of hours.

It may be a currency for its users, but at the official level, for banks or states, it is a commodity used to do business , such as gold. They do not consider it a currency.

Beyond its definition, what uses do cryptocurrencies have? Let’s see some that are already in operation.

Buy in stores

The most obvious option is to use it as a real currency. Many online businesses and services accept payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some more.

The Microsoft store allows you to buy applications and games for Windows and Xbox using cryptocurrencies, through BitPay . Dell also allows it, through Coinbase . Like the popular handmade goods store, Etsy .

Shopify accepts more than 300 different cryptocurrencies , 

If you have to go on a trip, Expedia accepts Bitcoins . Like many other travel agencies and airlines that you can find in Bitcoin Travel .

The aforementioned BitPay has a Mastercard credit card that instantly converts your Bitcoins into dollars, to pay with them in any trade. So technically you can pay with Bitcoins at any store in the world:

In Spain, Criptan also has a card like this one .

The dark side: drugs, arms trafficking …

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One of the main characteristics of most cryptocurrencies is that they are anonymous. They work in a similar way to cash : its owner is the one who has the money in his pocket or purse, but that money is not associated with any name.

When a transaction is made with a cryptocurrency, although that transaction is recorded on the blockchain and cannot be altered, it is an anonymous transaction . The only thing that is recorded is the movement of cryptocurrencies, but no names or identifiers are used, beyond the IP address.

There are even cryptocurrencies like Monero or Verge, where even the transactions are private, and cannot be seen.

The fact that no names or identifiers are used makes cryptocurrencies in common use on the Dark Web , being used for illegal transactions for the sale of drugs, weapons, money laundering , and even worse things.

To make donations

But not everyone who uses cryptocurrencies has dark ends.

One of the most common uses is to make donations . There are many NGOs that have a Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet, and they accept anonymous donations.

Among them Save the Children, Internet Archive, Free Software Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation, and many more. You can check the list on Bitcoin for Charity . 

To help NGOs

Some cryptocurrencies are not intended to speculate. Or at least, they speculate conscientiously …

Jokes aside, the truth is that there are different cryptocurrencies whose objective is to generate income for solidarity initiatives.

A close example is RotoMoon , a cryptocurrency that was born in Forocoches . In just 48 hours it generated a value of 2 million euros.

This token charges a 5% commission on each transaction that is destined for an NGO that helps homeless dogs and cats . It has already expanded internationally and has donated money to NGOs in Spain, the United States and Brazil, among others.

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New generation of one of Huawei’s most popular ultrathin notebooks. It maintains the design line of previous models and stands out for incorporating 11th Gen Intel Core processors and WiFi 6.

Payments between individuals

Another use of cryptocurrencies, and also its main strength, is that it allows anonymous and secure payment between individuals.

This can be done in a direct wallet-to-wallet transaction . Simply giving the wallet identifier to another person, simulating your Paypal email, that person can enter cryptocurrencies. And vice versa.

Speaking of PayPal , the popular payment platform already accepts to pay or collect with cryptocurrencies . At the moment it works with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin . Of course, you cannot pay with them in stores using PayPal.

Instant micropayments: Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

Conventional online payment systems only accept payments over a certain amount, and the process usually takes 1 or 2 minutes.

One of the advantages of cryptocurrencies is that you can make payments as small as you want, even 1 euro cent , and the transaction is fast, safe and anonymous.

What is this for? For example, to set up a decentralized social network like Steemit , where you charge in cryptocurrencies for writing good comments.

In the future, this system will be used to charge 1 euro cent for each visit your video receives , or each like you receive on your post from a social network, for example.

Or for correcting a photo, looking for a synonym, or any other microteque that you can do in seconds , and that someone else is willing to pay for it.

Charge for sharing your free hard drive: Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

Storj is a decentralized cloud service . Instead of storing data on servers, it is stored encrypted on thousands of computers around the world. In this way they cannot be snooped because they are very distributed, and they are completely safe when using Blockchain.

Storj also offers the option to rent a hard drive that you have free on your PC to be part of the Blockchain, and pay with cryptocurrencies.

His great legacy: the blockchain: Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

We do not know how successful cryptocurrencies will be in the long term. But we are convinced that its main legacy, the blockchain , will have many advantageous applications in the coming years.

Most cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are organized in the form of Blockchain or chain of blocks, a kind of decentralized database . All the transactions that bitcoin has generated throughout its history, absolutely all of them, are registered anonymously in a chain of linked blocks that for its alteration requires that the majority of users of the P2P network that sustains this chain, give their approval.

In other words, all the data associated with a cryptocurrency is chained, and to change something in that chain, thousands of computers must give their approval at the same time, which are connected to that network.

What is the digital Euro, the new official cryptocurrency of the EU, and how will it affect us

The European Union does not want to lag behind China and Russia, and is already developing an official cryptocurrency: the digital euro. A new financial revolution is underway …

This system is almost impossible to hack, because in order to alter a transaction, thousands of computers would have to be hacked at the same time, spread all over the world.

This security allows the use of blockchain-based technologies to carry out banking transactions, sign contracts, create a Wikipedia that cannot be censored , or search engines based on Blockchain .

To buy NFTs and ensure their operation: Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

Precisely, one of the Blockchain applications that have had the most impact in recent times are the NFT, or Non Fungible Token. That is, non-consumable items.

NFTs solve a previously unsolvable problem: ensuring the originality of a digital article.

Anything that is distributed over the Internet, from a photo to a text, a drawing, a video, etc., the moment it is converted to zeros and ones, infinite exact copies can be made.

NFT technology uses blockchain to give a digital file the category of unique or original , and since no one can tamper with the blockchain, no one can fake it. This allows, for example, that you can sell or buy a digital drawing, a meme or whatever you want, as an original object. And although there are millions of copies, you have the original because that is how the blockchain certifies it.

NFT opens the doors to collecting digital art, drawings, photographs and original content , on the same level as a painting or a physical collector’s item. Beyond the freaks for which millions are being paid right now …

Avoid censorship and government abuse : Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

Conventional currencies are in the hands of governments and central banks. A government law can depreciate the currency and lose your savings . Or, in the case of authoritarian governments, an unjust law, or a mistake, can lock your bank accounts and run out of money.

This can never happen if you have money invested in cryptocurrencies, because governments or banks cannot control them, even if they wanted to , as they are distributors for millions of computers around the world.

Many countries censor websites, blogs, newspapers, and other content . Web pages, search engines, encyclopedias and many other services are being implemented through blockchain, so that they cannot be censored by governments.

A safe haven against inflation: Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?

rawpixel / unsplash

From an economic point of view, one of the advantages of most cryptocurrencies over traditional currencies is that they are a refuge against inflation , such as gold.

This is because most of them have a finite number of coins , marked by the algorithm that generates them. For example, in the case of Bitcoin, there will only be 21 million Bitcoins . Being a finite number, it is a value that is not influenced by inflation, like real money, where there is no limit of banknotes that you can manufacture, depending on the economy.

So one of the functions of cryptocurrencies could be to serve as a refuge when there is inflation . But at the moment, it is not . The IPC has risen more than in the last 15 years in the United States, and on the other hand, Bitcoin does not go back and is under minimums. Ethereum, Filecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Bitcoin … What are cryptocurrencies for beyond their value?