You may be hearing about the ups and downs of Bitcoin and the waves of shock it is sending investors around the world. You may have also heard of people making almost instant millions by investing in these so called cryptocurrencies. It seems like much fanfare surrounds these mysterious things, but what exactly are they, and how can they be significant in your everyday life?

The Rise of Cryptocurrencies

Because of digitalization, more and more physical processes are migrated online for easy execution. This includes online shopping, banking, and even jobs.

What do all these things need?

That's right. Money.

For years, individuals and financial institutions have searched for ways to make the digital transfer of money both safe and swift, to no avail. That is, until Bitcoin was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2012. This new digital cash system operates in a decentralized manner, which means that it is not regulated by financial institutions but by the individuals, or “peers”, that create and exchange them.

Because of the absence of red tape, funds could be moved around faster than before. More people saw value in them and created other forms of virtual currencies like Ethereum and Litecoin, boosting its popularity.

In essence, these things are simply very secure and specialized codes that only specific people called miners can create and confirm. The so-called coins don't have an intrinsic value, but acquires this through its perceived value, similar to how stocks rise and fall depending on market sentiment.

All this may be confusing for most people, and it is indeed scary to get into something you're not that familiar with.

For beginners, there's Ripple, which is an easier way to get your feet wet in the cryptocurrency game.

Ripple and Its Advantage Over Other Altcoins

Unlike other digital currencies, Ripple’s main offering is its fund exchange platform. Users can transfer everything from real money to virtual coins to even airline miles in real time speed.

While Ripple also has its own digital currency called XRP, using its exchange platform doesn't require converting your funds to this in order to perform an exchange, which makes it so much more versatile and convenient to use.

So if you want to try your hand at this virtual money game, you can start by checking out cryptohead.io for a step-by-step tutorial on how to get started.