Crypto Explained in 156 words
The idea of cryptocurrency is not super novel – digital currency has been used in video games for decades.
Before blockchain, in-game currency never had real value because someone could just copy and paste the code, and counterfeit money would be undetectable.
Similarly, when transacting in cash with $USD, the US mint has made our dollar bills unique and difficult to forge, although someone could still attempt to pay you in counterfeit currency.
Crypto is Blockchain as a Currency
Ideally, money is difficult or impossible to counterfeit. Fortunately for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, MATIC, and Doge, counterfeit is programmatically impossible.
In the 2009 Bitcoin White paper, the counterfeit money problem was solved (dubbed the “double spend problem”) was solved, and cryptocurrency was invented.
The paper details highly technical cryptography enabling Bitcoin – the first cryptocurrency – to serve as the future method of exchanging value on the internet.
Bitcoin is simply a magical currency that sits on top of the more elusive technology called blockchain.
Espresso Insight 