Whether you go for a game night at your friend’s house or are relaxing with friends after work, invariably someone will be talking about the next big investment option. In the past, these discussions were around real estate, stocks, even gold. Now, all such talk is about cryptocurrencies. To be more specific, all such talk is around bitcoins. There is good reason for this interest, every alternate month in 2017 has seen the value of bitcoin hit all time highs. On 31 October 2017, bitcoin breached the Rs5 lakh mark, giving speculator returns of 844% in the last 1 year. Let’s read about cryptocurrencies and bitcoins.
What is cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are a subset of digital currencies. “Unlike other digital currencies that can be centrally issued, circulated within a community or geographical location, or tied to fiat currencies or organizations issuing them, a cryptocurrency has very different characteristics,” said David Lee Kuo Chuen, economics professor of fintech, Singapore University of Social Sciences.
