{"id":697,"date":"2022-03-21T06:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-665686-4207838.cloudwaysapps.coms\/?p=697"},"modified":"2022-07-14T13:25:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T13:25:57","slug":"who-exactly-is-crypto-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ixfi.com\/blog\/general\/who-exactly-is-crypto-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Exactly is Crypto For?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When it all started, back in the early days of 2009, the word \u201ccrypto\u201d was understood as its current meaning only by a very small group of individuals. As years went by, the word got out about this revolutionary technology, and the group grew larger \u2014 however, it was still mostly made of private persons, not companies, corporations or enterprises. They started taking interest in this new digital currency a bit later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crypto came into existence just after the start of the 2008 financial crisis, and it was supposed to be a private solution that will offer an alternative for classical banking systems. It was intended to be a new way to transfer value from one individual to another, without the need to involve a third party like a bank in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks were only present in a transaction as a voucher for trust: when two people did not trust each other, but they both trusted the bank. That was the old way of moving money around back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a decentralized system, the bank is replaced by the blockchain. When two people that want to make a money transfer do not trust each other, they can both trust the blockchain due to its transparency and reliability. This renders banks useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a very simple explanation of why crypto was so easily adopted by a certain category of people. In addition to this trust issue, the novelty factor generated interest for another category of people: tech geeks and enthusiasts, online hipsters, and other future-thinkers. Generally speaking, crypto also caught the interest of people that spend many hours in front of a computer screen and want to do as much as possible from that place: work, socialize, have fun, make purchases, etc. This was even before the rise of social media and the Metaverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move towards crypto use by public companies started with what is now known as \u201cBitcoin Pizza Day\u201d. On 22-May-2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, one of the early adopters of bitcoin, posted an unusual request on an internet forum dedicated to cryptocurrencies, saying that he is willing to offer 10.000 BTC to whoever will deliver him two large pizzas. Jeremy Sturdivant observed the posted order and fulfilled it by sending Laszlo two large pizzas from Papa John\u2019s delivery service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not get too upset and avoid imagining what we would do today with 10.000 bitcoins (estimated to be more than 400 million dollars). Instead, let\u2019s keep our focus on the event itself. What was initially a \u201ctrendy thing\u201d between people, now showed that it had the potential for commercial use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the actual transaction was still between two private individuals, somehow the restaurant that baked the pizzas was also connected to the transfer. This connection started to raise interest also from the side of public companies that noticed a commercial opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And after that day, the interest for the \u201cbusiness side\u201d of crypto grew more and more, because there was a growth in demand for crypto-associated services from the general public. As we all know, where there is a demand, soon the offer will follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some examples of these services requested by the general public: exchange one cryptocurrency with another one, buy crypto with fiat, sell crypto for fiat, loan crypto or even put your crypto to work for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with 2011, more and more cryptocurrencies were created, with various names, properties and use cases \u2014 all of them were derived from the original bitcoin. There\u2019s a short list of organizations that adopted this form of electronic money below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n