An Over-View of Crypto Currency

Crypto currency is produced by the entire crypto currency system collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly known.

In centralized banking and economic systems such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units of fiat money or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers.

However, companies or governments cannot produce units of crypto currency and as such, have not so far provided backing for other firms, banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in a decentralized crypto currency.

The underlying technical system upon which all crypto currencies are now based was created by the group or individual known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

As of March 2015, hundreds of crypto currency specifications exist; most are similar to and derived from the first fully implemented decentralized crypto currency, bitcoin.

Within crypto currency systems the safety, integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners.

Miners are known other than members of the general public using their computers to help validate and time stamp transactions adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular time stamping scheme.

The security of crypto currency ledgers is based on the assumption that the majority of miners are honestly trying to maintain the ledger, having financial incentive to do so. Most crypto currencies are designed to gradually decrease production of currency, placing an ultimate cap on the total amount of currency that will ever be in circulation.

This can mimic the scarcity (and value) of precious metals and avoid hyperinflation.Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, crypto currencies are less susceptible to seizure by law enforcement.

Existing crypto currencies are all pseudo-anonymous, though additions such as Zero coin and its distributed laundry feature have been suggested, which would allow for true anonymity.