NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT
What is Crypto & How to Participate
Beauty and the City, July 5, 2022 New York, NY (www.beautynthecity.com) – At Beauty and the City, we are including beauty articles along with crypto articles as part of our BNTC NFT for several reasons. Many women are crypto-curious and are open to inspiration on learning more. We believe women can talk to each other about crypto just as easily as they talk to each other about beauty trends. So here we go.
According to Forbes.com, “A cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange that is digital, encrypted and decentralized. Unlike the U.S. Dollar or the Euro, there is no central authority that manages and maintains the value of a cryptocurrency. Instead, these tasks are broadly distributed among a cryptocurrency’s users via the internet. You can use crypto to buy regular goods and services, although most people invest in cryptocurrencies as they would in other assets, like stocks or precious metals. While cryptocurrency is a novel and exciting asset class, purchasing it can be risky as you must take on a fair amount of research to fully understand how each system works.” https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/what-is-cryptocurrency/
There are over 5,000 cryptocurrencies. So where do you begin? When looking to gain an understanding of the market the first place to start would be the top ten cryptos by market cap and looking at what blockchain they are built on. Many of the newer cryptos are built on the Ethereum blockchain. You want to know how much of the cryptocurrency is in circulation, could the supply change, and what the use cases are for the crypto. Just looking into this will take some time to see what is going on in the landscape.
The next piece of the process could be investigating ways to participate in crypto. One option everyone is talking about is the NFT marketplace. This also connects many cryptos to viable use cases. So what is an NFT?
According to Investing.com, an NFT, or non-fungible token, is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, which is a digital ledger. NFTs can be reproducible digital files, like photos, videos, and audio. The NFT owner has title to the file and distribution rights.
NFTs are unique digital tokens, unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether, which are fungible, or exchangeable for another Bitcoin, Ether, or cash. A reasonable analogy is that Bitcoin and Ether tokens are like dollars, euros, or other means of exchange, while NFTs are like artwork, fine wines, or other collectibles that are one-of-a-kind assets. In 2022, as technology evolves, NFTs and the metaverse are emerging as innovation hubs.
NFTs are only one way to participate in cryptocurrency. You can also own crypto through apps like Coinbase and Gemini. You can mine crypto in the cloud or with crypto machines. You can trade goods and services for crypto. You can invest in publicly traded companies that are involved in crypto. Companies like Paypal and Block own crypto as a company investment, are building blockchain technologies, are participating in crypto projects, and allow purchases of crypto on their apps. You can also invest in companies that own crypto such as Grayscale Trust, which creates funds for specific crypto coins based on their investments in the assets. And you can invest in companies that mine crypto. One such company is RIOT, which uses funds from investors to buy machines to mine cryptocurrencies.
Companies like Block, formerly Square, are furthering their investment and initiatives around blockchain technology in anticipation of many more transactions occurring across the blockchain. The blockchain technology that allows for tracking and timestamping of transactions is very useful to businesses and could be adopted by more industries in the future.
There are many ways to participate in crypto, and there is plenty of excitement around the future potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The opportunity lies with you to take a deeper look and get inspired by this ever-evolving space.
