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Cryptocurrency is a type of decentralized digital currency. Cryptocurrencies utilizeblockchainledgerstorecord and validate transactions. The first cryptocurrency wasbitcoin, which debutedin 2009, and nearly 900 cryptocurrencies have been created as of 2017, although very few have seen widespread adoption.

When cryptocurrency is used to pay for goods or services, eachtransaction is securely encrypted and recorded in a public ledger called a blockchain. The blockchain ensures acryptocurrencys integrity and eliminates the need for a central administrator, such as a treasury or acentral bank. Cryptocurrency users connect directly to each other in eer-to-peer transactions, with a degree of anonymity provided by the blockchain ledger. Acryptocurrency walletis used to store various kinds of cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and it remains the most popular, with millions of users trading the 16 million bitcoins currently in electronic circulation. In its wake, many imitators appeared, andvirtually all of them replicated bitcoins approach while adding uniquetwists. Some of the first imitators, such as Namecoin and Litecoin, improved upon bitcoins security, although none of them have seenmainstream adoptionlike bitcoin, which as of 2017 is accepted at over 100,000 online retailers.

Other cryptocurrencies, like Nxt,resemble acomputing platform morethan a currency used for payment purposes. Where bitcoin simply registers ownership of coins, Nxts blockchain offers several transaction types, such asdata storage or commodities trading, and allows users tobuild apps that utilize the Nxt blockchain.

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency calledether to power a globally shared computer environment. Ethereum transactions are validated on a blockchain like other protocols, but these transactions dont simply confirm spent cryptocurrency; rather, whole computations are recorded in each block, and the price of performing the computation, whats called gas, is paid with ether. The processing power necessary for the computation is provided by users called miners who keep the ether as a reward.

Not ready to take the cryptocurrency plunge? You can always make online payments with a credit card, and Bankrate has the list of the best cash-back cards.

One way to understand the difference between bitcoin andethereum is to think of bitcoin as a currency enabled by a blockchain and ethereum as a blockchain enabled by currency. Whereas bitcoin exists to be spent, ethereums purpose is to provide a computing and business ecosystem. You cant spend ether on Amazon like you can with bitcoin, but you can use it to run an ethereum-based business or app without a middleman like J.P. Morgan or Apple.

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Cryptocurrency Definition | Bankrate.com

What is Cryptocurrency Mining?

Last Updated: 1st November 2018

Cryptocurrency mining is a process by which new coins are introduced into the existing circulating supply, as well as a process used to secure the network the coin operates on. The people who mine a coin, are known as miners. Therefore, instead of having a central authority that controls and secures the money supply, this control and security is spread out across the network that miners help to maintain.

The Mining ProcessTransactions that occur on the network such as, Alice sends 10 bitcoins to Bob, are collected by a miner and bundled up into a block. The miner then verifies that all transactions in the block are valid, as if he attempts to submit a block with an invalid transaction, the block will be rejected. An example of an invalid transaction would be Alice sending 10 Bitcoins to Bob, even though she does not have 10 Bitcoins to send.

After the miner has successfully verified that all transaction in the block are valid, he must then compute a cryptographic hash. It is necessary for miners perform this computation in-order to prevent just anyone from being able to create blocks therefore secures the network against fraudulent blocks. Computing a cryptographic hash requires a large amount of computing power as hundreds of millions of calculations are needed to be performed each second. This process is known as proof-of-work. Once the miner successfully solves the hash, his block is then relayed to the network to be checked against the consensus rules. Once accepted, the block is then added to the blockchain network and the miner is rewarded with set amount of the cryptocurrency.

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Cryptocurrencies have performed debatably in 2018, yet are continuing to attract new investors in 2019.

However, most beginners have difficulties finding the best cryptocurrency to invest in 2019. Weve all been there, so dont worry! I understand how confusing it is when you first begin looking for new cryptocurrency investments. And thats why Im here to help.

So, are you also looking for the next cryptocurrencies to invest in 2019? Do you find yourself wondering Should I be investing in Bitcoin? or Should I be in investing in Ethereum?

Well, wonder no longer! Im here to answer all your questions. By the end of this guide, youll know how to find cryptocurrencies to invest in 2019.

But first, lets talk you through the recent growth of cryptocurrencies.

The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was invented back in 2009. That was just the beginning though, and nobody really knew about Bitcoin until 2013. Additionally, no one even thought that it might become the best cryptocurrency to invest. However, since 2013 the cryptocurrency market has seen huge growth growth that has been hard to ignore. Such growth and market size can be compared to some of the very traditional retail markets, for example, multibillion mattress market (you didnt think of it, did you?). This market has experienced a vast growth of such skyrocketing mattress companies as Casper or Nectar, very similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum rising in the digital world. There are now more than 1500 different cryptocurrencies, all created in less than 5 years.

Its clear that 2017 was the year crypto really blew up. The market cap of cryptocurrencies grew by 4000%! The market cap of all cryptocurrencies was around $21 billion in March 2017, whereas it is now over $454 billion. Thats huge!

Market cap: The total price of all coins added together.

The cryptocurrency market isnt just about Bitcoin anymore. There are other cryptocurrencies that have entered the space, such as Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple. All of these have performed incredibly well over the last year and are the best cryptocurrency to invest in.

The following chart from CoinMarketCap shows the growth of cryptocurrencies over the years.

There are a lot of things being said about the future of cryptocurrencies. Some people believe that the cryptocurrency phase wont last long, while others think theyre going to be around forever.

It is difficult to predict the future of cryptocurrencies, but what I do know is that the popularity of cryptocurrencies is only increasing. One of the reasons why cryptocurrencies are becoming more popular is because of blockchain technology, which is the main technology behind all cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain technology is the next big thing it is secure, trustless technology that was first used by Bitcoin. You cant learn how to invest in blockchain, though. Instead, you can learn how to invest in the cryptocurrencies that use blockchain (which is all of them!)

Are you ready to find out about the next cryptocurrency to invest in 2019? Well, lets get started.

If somehow, youve only heard of one cryptocurrency, its probably Bitcoin. It is the biggest cryptocurrency it currently has a 40%i share in the total cryptocurrency market cap! It is the oldest cryptocurrency and it still dominates in the market. So, if Bitcoin continues to increase as it did in 2017, then investing in Bitcoin might be a good idea for 2019.

The price of Bitcoin changes a lot every day and has seen many highs and lows over the last few years. Take a look at the following chart and you will see just how much the price changes.

The price of 1 Bitcoin has gone from around $76 (07.09.13) to as high as $20,000 in December 2017. But then after Bitcoin reached its highest point in December, the price of Bitcoin dropped to around $6000 in February 2018 and has been dropping even further ever since. Its crazy!

With the price changing so much in such a short space of time, how do you decide what the best time is for investing in Bitcoin?

Well, we can try to find the answers by looking at some important past events when the price went up or down by a large amount.

Bitcoin Investing

If you want to invest in Bitcoin then you need to stay up to date with the latest news and trends around Bitcoin. When news is released about a new technical improvement, you might want to think about buying Bitcoin. If there is a huge fall in price of Bitcoin, then that too might be a good time to buy Bitcoin because you can buy it a low price.

If you have already decided to invest in cryptocurrencies, then it might be a good idea to start by investing in Bitcoin. Even though you have missed the first major opportunity to invest, investing in Bitcoin could still be a good idea.

It all depends on whether you believe in the future of Bitcoin. If you believe in it, you should think about investing in it. If you dont, then I recommend that you stay away from it. Its the same with any investment!

Towards the end of last year, the price of Ethereum was slightly higher than $720, with a total market cap of around $70 billion. At the beginning of 2018, Ethereum climbed and reached its highest price of $1423 on January 4. At this time, the total market cap for Ethereum was at $138 billion!

Ethereum grew by about 3000% in the year 2017 and became the second largest cryptocurrency, placing second behind Bitcoin.

Are you asking yourself, Should I invest in Ethereum? or Is the price of Ethereum already at its peak?. Well, the truth is, nobody knows! However, the following information should help you decide whether investing in Ethereum is a good option for you.

The chart below shows how Ethereum has grown over the last few years.

Below are the key events that have most affected the price of Ethereum in the past:

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is not just a digital currency. It is a more advanced blockchain project. This is because Ethereum offers something special by using Ethereums platform, developers can build their own cryptocurrencies.

Imagine that you would like to build a blockchain-based solution for managing the supply chain of your business. Well, thanks to Ethereum, you dont need to start from the beginning. Instead, you can just build an application on Ethereums blockchain. Ethereum makes it much easier for new blockchain projects to launch.

So, is Ethereum your next cryptocurrency to invest in 2019?

I recommend that you think about adding Ethereum to your list, as I think it could be one of the best cryptocurrency to invest 2019.

Julian Hosp, a blockchain expert, said that the market cap of Ethereum could rise to $200 billion by the end of 2019. If Hosps prediction is correct, the price of Ethereum will reach up to $2000. Hosps reason behind the prediction is based mostly on the ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) that decided to use the Ethereum blockchain in 2018 & 2019.

Ethereum also plans to improve their technology a lot this year, with new protocols almost ready to go. So, watch out for Ethereum!

To learn more about Ethereum, read our Ethereum vs Bitcoin guide.

Ripple, also known as XRP, was one of the best performing cryptocurrencies in 2017 with growth of around 36,000%! Yes, you read that right. It grew from almost $0 at the beginning of 2017 and reached $2.4 in December 2017 as you can see in the following chart.

Like all other cryptocurrencies, the price of Ripple has also decreased in 2018 it is currently set at $0.36.

I know what youre thinking you missed a great opportunity by not investing Ripple in early 2017. While thats true, Ripple could still be a good option to consider as your next cryptocurrency to invest in 2019.

Even though the price of one XRP is a lot lower than the price of one Bitcoin, XRP is still the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap. In May 2018, it had a total market cap of around $35 billion.

So, what is it about Ripple that has made it so popular for investors?

The main reason for Ripples popularity is that it is not just a digital currency, but also a payment system. Ripple uses blockchain technology to make international payments securer and faster.

If you tried to make an international bank payment today, it would take around 2-10 days for the transaction to process. The same payment, when done using Ripple, takes a few seconds. How awesome is that!

But theres more good news many large financial institutions like American Express, JP Morgan and Santander are already using Ripples technology. Also, Ripple has been working with the Saudi Arabia Central Bank, Chinas LianLian International and other banks from around the world.

So, if youre wondering how to invest in blockchain, then Ripple might be the best answer.

Based on what I just explained, Ripples future in financial industry could be a good one. You should watch out for Ripple and learn more about their partnerships. Look out for new partnerships too if Ripple signs a contract with another large bank, then it could increase the price of XRP.

The investors, who understood the services that are offered by Ripple, have made a lot of money. After a fantastic 2017, Ripple could just be the best cryptocurrency to invest in 2019.

Note: Now might be a good time to invest in Ripple, as its price has dropped 70% lower than its an all-time high of $3.4 in January 2017.

Our list of what is the best cryptocurrency to invest in 2019 cannot be complete without Litecoin. Just like Ripple, Litecoin showed great performance in 2017 with a growth of almost 8000%.

The price of Litecoin grew from around $4 at the beginning of 2017 to a high of $358 in December 2017. However, just like most cryptocurrencies, Litecoin also followed the price trend and dropped to $110 in February 2018.

Take a look at Litecoins price chart below you can see the quick rise in the price of Litecoin at the beginning of 2018. The price of both Litecoin and Bitcoin has followed a similar trend over the last year.

Litecoin is the 5th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of around $11 billion. Litecoin continues to interest investors because of its close connection to Bitcoin. Providing a good reason for Litecoin to be on our list for the next cryptocurrency to invest in 2019.

Litecoin was created in 2011 to improve upon Bitcoins technology. Litecoin completes a transaction 4 times faster than Bitcoin. However, unlike Bitcoin, the maximum number of Litecoin is capped at 84 million 4 times more than the coin supply of Bitcoin (21 million).

Litecoin was the first cryptocurrency to perform a Lightning Network transaction in May 2017. Using the Lightning Network, 0.00000001 Litecoin was transferred from Zurich to San Francisco in under one second! Once Litecoin starts using the Lightning Network, it could increase the price of the Litecoin!

Lightning Network: A new technology that increases the speed of transactions on the blockchain network.

How do investors make decisions they want to invest in real estate or stocks? Do they start making investments the moment they think about it? My guess is that the answer to that question is no!

Before you invest in anything, you need a clear understanding of what your investment goals are and how you will achieve them. You want a good idea of how long you are prepared to keep your investment open, and what amount of profit you are happy to take.

You should have the same mindset with cryptocurrency investments. Before you decide what the next cryptocurrency to invest in 2019 is for you, lets discuss the two main types of investment strategies for cryptocurrencies.

A long-term investment is one where you expect a cryptocurrency to perform better over a longer period of time. Simple! Normally, the minimum time for long-term investment is 6 months to 1 year. Although, some people plan to hold onto their investments for 5-10+ years. Its up to you how you choose to invest; you can either make your full investment in one go, or you can invest at different times.

Long-term Investment Strategy

Once again, before investing any amount, you must have a clear idea of what your investment goals are:

Next, you should do some research to decide which cryptocurrencies are best as long-term investments. I recommend that you check for the following:

If you really believe in the cryptocurrency you invest in, you should learn to hold on to your investment even when the prices drop. If you panic sell, then you could lose money and regret selling.

Short-term investments are made over shorter time periods in the hope of making quick profits. So, just how short is a short-term investment?

Short-term investments can take seconds, minutes, days or even a few months.

Just like long-term investing, you need to have clear goals for your investment. You need to be asking yourself:

You need to find out which is the best cryptocurrency to invest in 2019 for the short-term. Cryptocurrencies that have the following are good options for short-term investments:

While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum can also be traded in the short-term, you should think about investing in the newer cryptocurrencies. Investors have made huge profits in the past with short-term investments including some of the major, but newest cryptocurrency investments like NEO, Stellar, IOTA, and NEM.

The main advantage of short-term investments is that you can make a lot of money in a short amount of time they have made a lot of people rich quickly. However, they still have their disadvantages.

So, what are they?

Its difficult to say which is the better option of the two investment strategies. It all depends on your goals and experience in the cryptocurrency market.

If you really believe in a project, then I recommend that you invest in the long term. However, if a project is new and is generating a lot of attention, then short-term trading could be the better option.

While cryptocurrencies can give you huge profits, you must be prepared for one more thing to lose money. Remember, your predictions wont always be right! Nobody truly knows what is going to happen to the price of a cryptocurrency or any other investment.

Do you know what most of the expert cryptocurrency investors say? You should only invest money that you are not afraid to lose. Its great advice, so always remember it!

So, this is the end of our Best Cryptocurrency to Invest 2019 guide. I hope that you now know which investment strategy will work best for you and that you have a good understanding of what makes a good investment.

Which of the cryptocurrencies I mentioned is your favorite? Do you have a pick for the best cryptocurrency to invest in 2019?

*Note: this article is a personal opinion. Before making any investment decisions you should consult with a professional.

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Best cryptocurrency to Invest 2019 - The Complete Guide

Yesterday, I wrote an article about new cryptocurrency regulations popping up around the world.

One of the main pieces of legislation I discussed was the Cryptocurrency Act 2020, a new bill being proposed in the United States.

The goal of the new legislation is to provide additional clarification on digital asset regulations. The bill has some wide-ranging regulations that, if voted into law, could reshape the crypto landscape moving forward at least in the United States, that is.

The US senator who put forward the Cryptocurrency Act 2020, Paul Goser, stated that it was his desire to attribute regulatory clarity to the market.

In this article, I will dive deeper into what the Cryptocurrency Act 2020 is, how it will affect Americans, and what to expect from regulatory bodies.

The Cryptocurrency Act 2020 begins with the categorisation of digital assets into three main groups. These groups are then used to determine which agencies are responsible for the creation of regulation and legislation. The first group described in the new bill is cryptocurrencies.

The crypto class includes Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and any other cryptocurrencies that dont fall under the current securities regulations. The bill classifies these tokens as any digital asset that includes representations of United States currency or synthetic derivatives resting on a blockchain or decentralised cryptographic ledger.

Smart contracts and oracles fall under the cryptocurrency category as well.

The next class described in the bill is crypto-commodities. A key aspect of these tokens is the fact that they contain some form of substantial fungibility.

Fungible assets are interchangeable, such as the USD. These assets must reside on a blockchain or decentralised cryptographic ledger to fall under this classification.

The final type of coin described in the bill is crypto-securities. These tokens are simply any coin that fails the Howey Test.

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The three regulatory bodies mentioned in the bill that will oversee the cryptocurrency space include the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

These groups will gain sole authority over their respective digital asset types. Lets explore how each regulatory body operates.

The CFTC would gain jurisdiction of the crypto-commodities class. The group will need to develop the framework for these tokens from the ground up if the legislation passes. Due to the rise of cryptocurrencies, it is expected crypto-commodities will play a major role in the space going forward.

The Cryptocurrency Act 2020 keeps security tokens under the watchful eye of the SEC. The SEC recently began cracking down on what it considers illegal securities offerings from the 2017 ICO craze. Two examples I mentioned yesterday were EOS and Telegram. Ethereum was also slapped on the wrist by the SEC for conducting an unregistered securities sale.

Last but not least, FinCEN will be in charge of cryptocurrencies that are used as e-money. FinCEN will need to collaborate with the Secretary of the Treasury to enforce AML and KYC protocols in the market. Primarily, regulators want to develop a way to trace all cryptocurrency transactions, which seems highly questionable.

A great deal of crypto enthusiasts point to the new legislation as a means to combat Facebooks proposed digital asset Libra. Ever since Facebook announced its goals to produce a stablecoin that will operate on its network, lawmakers have been in a rush to configure some form of framework to contain the companys potentially game-changing product.

Multiple senators have called for Libra to be categorised as a security. Last year, a group of bipartisan US senators proposed a bill that would place all stablecoins into the securities category. The bill the Token Taxonomy Act of 2019 would firmly place Facebooks latest crypto under the regulatory supervision of the SEC.

I personally believe the objective of the Cryptocurrency Act 2020 is to enforce regulations and to force crypto companies to play by the same rules.

Will the Cryptocurrency Act 2020 make changes that will ripple throughout the space? It is too early to tell. However, from experience, it seems regulatory bodies enable new money to come into the space, so lets hope for the best.

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What is the Cryptocurrency Act 2020?

Main TERM C

By Forrest Stroud

Cryptocurrency mining, or cryptomining, is a process in which transactions for various forms of cryptocurrency are verified and added to the blockchain digital ledger. Also known as cryptocoin mining, altcoin mining, or Bitcoin mining (for the most popular form of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin), cryptocurrency mining has increased both as a topic and activity as cryptocurrency usage itself has grown exponentially in the last few years.

Each time a cryptocurrency transaction is made, a cryptocurrency miner is responsible for ensuring the authenticity of information and updating the blockchain with the transaction. The mining process itself involves competing with other cryptominers to solve complicated mathematical problems with cryptographic hash functions that are associated with a block containing the transaction data.

The first cryptocurrency miner to crack the code is rewarded by being able to authorize the transaction, and in return for the service provided, cryptominers earn small amounts of cryptocurrency of their own. In order to be competitive with other cryptominers, though, a cryptocurrency miner needs a computer with specialized hardware.

Image Credit: Wordfence

While cryptomining can generate a small income for a cryptocurrency miner, in most cases only in the amount of a dollar or two per day for an individual using their own dedicated computer hardware. Expenses like electricity, internet connection, and computing hardware also impact the net revenue generated by cryptocurrency mining.

In order to get started mining, cryptocurrency miners will need dedicated computer hardware with a specialized graphical processing unit (GPU) chip or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), sufficient cooling means for the hardware, an always-on internet connection, a legitimate cryptocurrency mining software package, and membership in both an online cryptocurrency exchange as well as an online mining pool.

Aspiring cryptominers should also know that as cryptocurrencies have risen in both popularity and value, competition has increased substantially as well and now includes organizations and enterprises with more extensive resources than most individuals can compete with.

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Cryptocurrency Market News - Bitcoin and Altcoins News

Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, ICO, blockchain, mining... When hearing those words just a couple of years back, people used to say:

You surely were also among those people who did not take Bitcoin and cryptocurrency seriously, but the current events gag even the biggest skeptics.Current Bitcoin price is 6,644$*The price of the most popular cryptocurrency repeatedly breaks all the unthinkable records.Capitalization is about $120 billionWorld recognitionThe world's largest economies - India and Japan - recognized Bitcoin as the official currency. The US authorities recognized cryptocurrency as the asset. And this is just the beginning.

Mining on an industrial scaleThe cryptocurrency market is extremely fast-changing, and it is almost impossible to monitor the situation and make the right decisions on your own. Most people have no proper experience, time and money for that. My book gives basic yet quite extensive information for those people who do not chase a rainbow but want to build a long-term profitable business in one of the cryptocurrency areas: from mining to investing.

So, this book is not about:

Find out 7 cryptocurrency investment strategies + 2 perfect strategies today!

It is definitely Amazon Great Deal: You can read on your PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet or Kindle device.

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The entire market cap of cryptocurrencies has decreased by $40 billion in light of the recent sell-off that has seen Bitcoin slide from $10,500 to $8,830.

The dramatic move to the downside, which came to a crescendo on Wednesday evening as BTC crashed below $9,000, has invalidated the theory touting Bitcoin as a safe haven asset amidst a downturn in global markets.

While the slump in the price of cryptocurrencies has been devastating, it pales into insignificance when compared with the decline in stock markets.

Trillions of dollars has been wiped from global equity markets on the back of coronavirus-related fears, with it now spreading throughout mainland Europe.

Several cryptocurrency analysts have been scratching their heads wondering why Bitcoin failed to form a higher high when assets like gold continue to impress.

From a technical perspective the key moving average for Bitcoin to focus on is the daily 200 MA, which is currently at $8,775.

Wednesdays daily candle closed below the moving average to demonstrate confirmation of a breakdown in price, although if it can bounce back this evening and close above the $8,830 region it may provide fuel for a surge back towards the $9,000 region.

It is also worth keeping tabs on the dailly 200 EMA at $8,600 as it provided Bitcoin with a bounce on two occasions yesterday.

For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here.

Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents:

US Dollar BTCtoUSD

British Pound Sterling BTCtoGBP

Japanese Yen BTCtoJPY

Euro BTCtoEUR

Australian Dollar BTCtoAUD

Russian Rouble BTCtoRUB

In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.orgwas registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are.

The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins.

If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin orcryptocurrenciesin general, then use the search box at the top of this page.Heres an article to get you started.

As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice.

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Major sell-off wipes $40 billion from cryptocurrency market - Yahoo Finance

The UN may not be the most innovative of institutions, yet it does, with surprising frequency, experiment with new technology and solutions. In recent years, its undertaken initiatives that incorporate artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and blockchain technology.

These projects often remain confined to the realm of experiments. But a recent undertaking by UNICEF, the UN agency tasked with providing aid to children around the world, now offers what could be a glimpse of the future: The Cryptocurrency Fund, which collects contributions in cryptocurrencies, and then doles out those donations in the same currency. No exchange needed.

The crypto fund is nested within another UNICEF venture, the Innovation Fund, which provides seed funding to blockchain-based companies developing products or services that could potentially be of use in social and development settings.

Beginning in October 2019, UNICEF has been outfitted to receive donations in two cryptocurrenciesbitcoin and etherwith the first donation coming from the Ethereum Foundation, the organization that created ether. So far three organizations have received funding through UNICEFs crypto fund.

As it does in other settings, cryptocurrency presents opportunities and challenges for UNICEF and, more broadly, the whole UN system. Cryptocurrencies are volatile and vulnerable to scams and money laundering. But they are also highly traceable and, when it comes to the UN, could some day provide the international organization greater independence from the countries that make up its members.

The Innovation Fund, and the crypto fund thats part of it, is managed by an office at UNICEF that handles projects that incorporate technology like drones, machine learning, blockchain, and other advancements. So far, the Innovation Fundwhich amounts to $25 millionhas supported more than 20 companies with seed money, up to $100,000 per investment.

The projects funded varyfrom digital prescription services, to drug delivery, to mobile networks. To receive funding a project must be based in so-called emerging or developing markets, work in a field with a market cap of $1 billion, and work with open source technology. There are no limitations, however, to the field in which the company operates, nor must it provide an immediate social good. Atix Labs, for instance, an Argentinian blockchain developer and a fund recipient, provides services to high-profile clients like Nestl and Honda.

Since the opening of the crypto fund, a portion of the Innovation Funds investments are now made in cryptocurrency. The donations made into the crypto fund arent converted into fiat currency, but given out in the same cryptocurrency in which they were received, so the recipients need to be familiar with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.

Digital finance is going to change pretty significantly how we work as an organization, Sunita Grote, who manages the Innovation Fund, told Quartz. There was a need to prepare the organization to be able to leverage the kind of emerging technologies in that field to make us more efficient.

UNICEF is an organization with an annual budget of $7 billion that makes a lot of financial transactions. The sheer volume of the funding that we move means that any gains in efficiency, any increases in transparency, could have quite a significant impact on how we operate as an organization, Grote said.

As a large international organization with many layers of bureaucracy, each donation to and from UNICEF has to go through several steps, and digital currency makes that process much easier to trackand much quicker to complete. According to Grote, transactions that could take months to get through the required levels of authorization, can happen in a matter of minutes with blockchain-based currencies, because the required authentications can happen exponentially faster.

In this sense, the crypto fund is a way to grease the wheels and build up that muscle memory internally, Grote said. We can imagine that, a couple of years down the line, we would be making more transactions in digital currencies at greater volume.

Although it is small, and likely to remain such for the foreseeable future (Grote dismissed the idea that there may be a future in sight where the UN works exclusively in digital currency), the potential seems significant, in particular given the fact that the fund doesnt convert back to other currencies. This means that where today the cryptocurrency donation received is transferred directly to a blockchain technology development company, in a faraway tomorrow the recipient could be an employee receiving a salary.

Story continues

While the program has worked so far, there are several issues that the use of cryptocurrency at the UN raises, beginning with volatility. The value of cryptocurrencies can fluctuate dramatically, and while UNICEF says the fact that there is no conversion and donations are made to and from the fund in the same digital currency, that doesnt necessarily eradicate the issue. For instance, the donation made by the Ethereum Foundation in October was 100 ETH, or about $18,000. It is now worth roughly $22,700.

Companies may be used to dealing with cryptocurrency, but most still need to pay bills in a local fiat currency, Angus Champion de Crespigny, a cryptocurrency expert and managing director of technology at strategic firm C|T Group, told Quartz.

There are other issues to consider, like the risk of hacking and scams related to cryptocurrency accounts, or the fact that volatility can make it hard for a government to track exactly how much money is being donated and received, which raises money laundering concerns.

There is also the value organizations like the Ethereum Foundation derive from having UNICEF use their currencya situation made more complicated by the fact that Ethereum Foundation itself was the first to make a large donation to the crypto fund, and that the organizations persistence was reportedly behind UNICEFs embracing of blockchain and crypto currency. The lobbying seems to have paid off: Ether seems to be the go-to currency for UNICEFs crypto transaction, and is being tested in its Kazakhstan office, where the agency has set up a system to make internal payments in ether.

A recognized public institution such as the UN accepting and distributing bitcoin and ether is of course a vote of confidence in their respective ecosystems,Champion de Crespigny said. While this isnt intrinsically a bad thing, it can have enormous impact at a stage when the value of crypto currency changes so dramatically, and getting the endorsement of a large international organization might help propel the value of the digital currency.

While these potential problems are all of concern, Grote said the UNICEFs crypto fund acts as a sort of test case, allowing managers to learn from the issues that arise and design protocols and best practices to address themultimately helping to potentially introduce the use of cryptocurrency across the whole UN system.

There is also an important political component to cryptocurrencyperhaps best revealed by Facebooks Libra. Although the social networks currency experiment has yet to take off, it revealed the potentially disruptive power of decentralized currency. It is the first instance in which a currency is associated with a community that exists independently of the currency itself. In a way, Facebooks users are to Libra what the citizens of a country are to that countrys currency.

This concept can become particularly powerful in the case of an international organization like the UN. Despite being an institution comprised of numerous member countries, until now its been forced to use national currencies. There have been proposals to introduce an international currency backed by a reserve of state currencies, but no real action has been taken in that direction. Cryptocurrency, which is not associated with any national banks, could be an alternative way to relieve the UN of having to rely on the currencies of individual countries, giving it a new level of independence, and perhaps even more international authority.

After all, what distinguishes cryptocurrency is its decentralized nature.

Many would argue that bitcoins sole value proposition is to allow people and entities to be independent of central banks, Champion de Crespigny said, in which case non-sovereign organizations could absolutely use assets such as bitcoin to remain as independent as possible from all parties in a not-too-distant future.

That is, however, at least in theory, and with the usual caveat applicable to cryptocurrency, that its still too early to understand with any degree of confidence whether it is the gateway to a new economicand politicalfuture, or just a fad.

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