Great reply, you are right, but the article is aimed specifically at cryptocurrency created from the use of Blockchain technology.
I've used the Bitcoin as an example in the article to make clear that the article is not widespread and is not trying to promote the scammers.
i understand your premiss.
but something like "what is bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency" which i thought the article was purely about due to the title of this forum topic. i was expecting a different answer.
specifically talking about this forum topic and also addressing another issue i came to in regards to your flim flam understanding of money vs currency, it can be explained much simpler starting from the top down explaining each level and all main forms of finance
currency is the biggest umbrella term there is in finance. literally anything can be a currency.
cigarettes in prison, alcohol for favours, money, assets commodities. as long as one person has what another person wants.. its a currency.
money this is a type of currency recognised in a larger group, usually nationally/internationally and usually managed by institutions.
though there are some exceptions to that rule,
money usually has a logical and semi fixed rate of exchange to ensure everyone nationally or internationally can use it healthily.
assets these are not nationally or internationally used as a common form of currency, more independent/specialised currencies
but they do hold significant value due to what the particular item offers. antiques, jewellery, investment, basically if you own it its an asset.
commodity these like assets, are not nationally or internationally used as a common form of currency,
but do hold value due to what they are, which in the loosest term are raw materials used to make other produce.(wheat, beef, oil, gold)
physical currency, can be physical money(bank notes and coins), physical assets(antiques, prison cigarettes, gold)
digital currency, can be
computerised money(bank balances), computerised assets(shares portfolios) online value(paypal, western union) and cryptocurrency(bitcoin)
cryptocurrency is the new category of digital currency specifically secured by cryptographic keys,
within this category you can have
smart contracts is a new form of transacting by any number of parties signing in agreement.
this can be centralized by storing the contract only on the computers of the individuals involved or
this can be decentralized by storing the contract publicly to avoid disagreement or loss of contracts should any one contractor have issues
blockchain is a
block of data(ledger)
chained to a previous block of data(ledger) using encryption
this makes it harder to not only break the encryption of a block but the links of the chain each block of data relies on.
they can be kept locally(centralized) to ensure no individual employee within a company can edit the data alone
or copies are distributed(decentralized) to many people that can easily check against each other as an extra level of security
by there being no single copy, thus further reducing the risk of editing, and also data loss due to hardware corruption and or viruses
bitcoin uses
digital technology to free it from borders, and physical issues
cryptographic keypairs to secure the funds
encryption to secure the blocks
chains to decrease the ability of editing a block because it relies on the previous blocks integrity
decentralisation to further reduce the chances of corruption, data loss or security issues
bitcoin presently(not institutionally recognised or mainstream accepted) is defined as an digital asset currency
