Gauge Newsletter September 2017 | Page 34

CRYPTOCURRENCIES Bitcoins Source - fortune.com C ryptocurrencies are a modern form of digital money, which is also called virtual currencies, or tokens. They don’t have any physical form, but only a digital form. Even though they are represented as a digital currency, they are complex than the digital form of money present in Paypal, Google Wallet etc.. These are not controlled by governments but by their respective network servers. Cryptocurrency uses cryptographic protocols and com- plex codes to encrypt data transfers to secure their exchanges. Developers build these protocols using advanced mathematics, Current payment system require third-party intermediaries that often change high processing fees Current system vs Bitcoin system Source - deloitte.com 34 University of Peradeniya Gauge Magazine which makes it impossible to break and dupli- cate currencies. These protocols also mask the identities of cryptocurrency users. But machine-to-machine paymet the Bitcoin pro- tocol could allow for direct payment between induviduals, as wel as support micropayments.