Advantages and disadvantages of an "inspiring" currency

After learning about mining last week, you are probably wondering what the overall advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrencies are.

Over the last couple of years the term cryptocurrency has been rapidly gaining the public eye. Just a simple google trend search shows you the start of the growth.

However, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this “inspiring” currency?

Advantages:

1. Ultra Secure and inexpensive to secure. First of all, payments using cryptocurrency can be made and finalized without one’s personal information being tied to the transactions. Moreover, due to the fact that personal information is kept hidden from prying eyes, cryptocurrencies protect against identity theft. Last but not least, cryptocurrencies can be backed up and encrypted to ensure the safety of your money.
2. The supply is controlled and capped.
3. Concerning fraud, it is practically impossible to counterfeit. Cryptocurrency use a “push” mechanism that allows the cryptocurrency holder to send exactly what he or she wants to the merchant or recipient with no further information.
4. One of the benefit of cryptocurrency vis-a-vis current fiat currencies is that the central bank can’t take it away. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized. In other words, YOU own it. You own the private key and the corresponding public key that makes up your cryptocurrency address.
5. Freedom in payment. With cryptocurrencies, it is very possible to be able to send and get money anywhere in the world at any given time.
6. Information is Transparent. With the blockchain, all finalized transactions are available for everyone to see, however personal information is hidden. For instance, Bitcoin protocol cannot be manipulated by any person, organization, or government. This is due to Bitcoin being cryptographically secure.

Disadvantages:

1. Lack of awareness and understanding. Many people are still unaware of digital currencies. These people need to be educated about it to be able to use it and apply it in a right way to their lives.
2. Cryptocurrencies are volatile due to the fact that their supply is limited and their demand is increasing day by day. However, this volatility is expected to decrease with time because, as more businesses begin to accept these cryptocurrencies, their prices will begin to settle down.
3. Still in development. Cryptocurrency is still in its infancy stage; a lot of its features are still in development. The full potential of these currencies has not be reached yet…

Conclusion:

To sum up, cryptocurrencies have a long way to go before they can replace credit cards and traditional currencies as a tool for global commerce. A survey done by PWC in 2015 shows that only 6% consider themselves very familiar with cryptocurrencies. However, and in order to finish this article with a positive note, we can say that cryptocurrencies could be seen as the 2.0 version of gold…