Cryptocurrencies have become an integral part of life, but not everyone fully understands what they are and what opportunities they represent🔎 The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, appeared in 2010 as an alternative to fiat currency, which is controlled by banks. Bitcoin's decentralized nature makes it "not owned" by anyone, it also provides complete confidentiality because cryptocurrency transactions cannot be traced. In fall of 2011 the first hard fork of bitcoin appeared - Litecoin. Forks are updates of the network, soft forks lead to code improvements and increased power, while hard forks lead to the creation of new coins✅ After Bitcoin came Ethereum and both currencies became the leaders of the crypto market, all other coins became known as altcoins. Since cryptocurrencies were not stocks, they could not be traded on regular stock exchanges, so crypto exchanges and crypto exchangers appeared💸 The blockchain technology on which cryptocurrency evolved became used for NFT, creation of meta-villages, web3 applications, etc. You can read more about blockchain and cryptocurrency in our blog