17 curiosities about cryptocurrencies that you cannot miss

The term cryptocurrency comes from the Greek - kryptos in Greek means hidden. A cryptocurrency is a type of digital money, so it does not exist physically. Its operation is based on mathematical algorithms and uses encryption techniques to generate monetary units and verify economic transactions. A few years ago only a handful of experts knew what a cryptocurrency was, while today its popularity has encouraged many to discover this world. Perhaps the best known is Bitcoin, since it was the first, but there are many cryptocurrencies with great potential: Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple XRT ... In their brief existence, they have already starred in a lot of joys, but also troubles, so first of all we would like to remind you that investing with cryptocurrencies has its risk, like any operation. But it is not just any operation: it can be very profitable and at the same time highly volatile, so we recommend not investing without prior training if you do not want to be upset. Therefore, the objective of this article is not the training in cryptocurrencies, but some of the most well-known or extravagant curiosities:

1. “Bitcoin” only appears twice in your White Paper: in its title and in the web domain, but none in the entire body of the document.
2. The term "blockchain" is also not mentioned in the white paper. The terms "chain" and "blocks" have been mentioned separately, and the phrase "chain of blocks".
3. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Hal Finney, a video game developer for Atari and one of the early pioneers of Bitcoin, was a suspect along with businessman Craig Wright, who has come to say of himself that he has the relevant evidence to prove that he is the creator of Bitcoin. However, neither case has been proven.
4. In May 2010, one of the most curious transactions took place: two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins. At that moment they were equivalent to $ 30, but currently it would be $ 5 million.
5. OneCoin is the largest cryptocurrency scam and one of the largest in history, a Ponzi scheme that scammed between $ 4,000 and $ 19.4 billion. Its creator, Ruja Ignatova, has been missing for years.
6. As part of a publicity campaign, climbers brought several Ledger wallets with 1,000,000 ASKT inside them to Everest, and one of them was buried there.
7. 50 Cent was ruined, but it was saved by the fact of having sold a record years ago accepting BTC as a means of payment. By increasing his value, he not only managed to get out of bankruptcy, he made huge profits.
8. China is the absolute leader in the creation of new virtual currencies, and accounts for the majority of the world's mining capacity. It is largely due to the low cost of electricity and the use of alternative energy sources. Other major cryptocurrency mining centers include the United States, Canada, Iran, Georgia, and Venezuela. In Europe, Iceland and Sweden are in the lead. Meanwhile, in some countries cryptocurrency trading is illegal.
9. Rapper Akon decided to build a new city in his native Senegal, signed under his pseudonym. In January 2020, he announced via social media that Akon City had closed a deal under which the city would become a cryptocurrency metropolis. According to the rapper, cryptocurrencies have the opportunity to guarantee a better future for the people of Senegal and even for all of Africa. There are more projects related to cryptocurrencies in Africa and their development.
10. There are more than 9,000 different types of cryptocurrencies in circulation, including some quite curious that it is difficult to believe they exist. Some examples are:
    • The WhopperCoin was a failed Burger King project in Russia.
    • CannabisCoin and SexCoin are used to buy online - legally - the products that their names indicate.
11. Origins: before bitcoin, there were other attempts at digital currencies such as Digicash, which ensured anonymous electronic transactions, Flooz, or Beenz, which starred in one of the most notorious technological bankruptcies. "The Economist" predicted the creation of a currency for international use that he called Phoenix, indicating many aspects that would later fulfill, in addition to other previous attempts such as b-money and bit gold.
12. About 1,000 users are believed to control 40% of all bitcoins. These large holders are called whales, and proportionally they have so much power that their decisions can swing the price of the cryptocurrency sharply. Within these whales there are some relevant people, such as their own creator, who is estimated to have about 1 million bitcoins, or the Winklevoss twins, who intervened in the creation process of Facebook. Other holders are more surprising, such as the FBI, which has almost 150,000 bitcoins derived from seizures the so-called “drug ebay”, the Silk Road platform, as well as the Bulgarian government, which owns more than 210,000 bitcoins confiscated from various hackers.
13. ICF Zurich, a Swiss evangelical church, accepts donations in various cryptocurrencies: bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), ripple (XRP) and stellar lumen (XLM). The good use that is made in the church of new technologies has attracted many young people.
14. James Howells, started working with Bitcoins from his computer in 2009. A year later, he disassembled the device, stored the parts in a drawer, and took them to a landfill. If today he could recover his hard drive, he could get hold of his 7,500 bitcoins, which are worth more than $ 100 million today.
15. Cryptocurrencies can be mined from mining rigs, through smartphones to curious objects such as a light bulb, a toothbrush, and pencil and paper.
16. There are projects of maritime and space nations with their own cryptocurrencies.
17. There are games for smartphones in which cryptocurrencies are obtained, such as the famous CryptoKitties with Ethereum, or those developed by Phoneum, a cryptocurrency that operates only on mobile devices through apps - one mining and three games. There are currently many different crypto reward games, the best known of which are the "slot machines" type.

Which one has surprised you the most? Did you know some? This technological revolution has only just begun, so these anecdotes and curiosities are a tiny part of those that already exist and will exist. At Inversa, we are committed to blockchain technology, in fact, we have incorporated it from the beginning due to the advantages it offers us in terms of security, incorporating it for the registration of all contracts. In addition, for some time we have partnered with Alastria with the aim of taking advantage of all the opportunities that arise in a future that add value to our customers. But that is not all! Inversa has a miner working non-stop from sunrise to sunset. But what are we talking about? No, we do not exploit any worker, but in the office we have a platform that is responsible for mining or "producing" Ethereum, a cryptocurrency with great potential.