We are entering a new era of money, that will play a significant role in our financial freedoms as finance  transforms into Fintech.
 
As we finalized our move into cashless societies, cryptocurrency technology has given global commerce the ability to bypass traditional financial services – essentially removing intermediaries or middlemen involved in the lucrative money transfer industry.
 
In witnessing the inevitable transition to this new paradigm, one cannot help but chuckle at the die-hard proponents of our financial institutions, trying to hold on to their century-old monopoly – as their stubbornness is pathetically played out in congressional hearings.
 
Cryptocurrency with its underlying blockchain solutions have technology companies salivating at the opportunity of being the new intermediaries - providing banking and financial services to billions of unbanked people around the world. Noted example,  Facebook's contentious move with Libra , and Google is not that far behind. 

Furthermore, this digital technology grants governments increased power of surveillance and censorship over citizens. Therefore it is no surprise, countries are soon to launch blockchain solutions for their own national digital currencies (China, Russia…with many more to follow). 
 
It is predicted that digital currencies and corporate cryptocurrency blockchain solutions from governments, private corporations & even central banks - will be competing amongst each other for a share of the global currency markets. 

In this fierce competitive arena, Bitcoin will be a major force to contend. Bitcoin has been classified as a currency (not a security). It is designed to be a decentralized digital form of sound money. Bitcoin functions as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency settlement protocol. You do not require trust in a custodial party to hold your Bitcoin cryptocurrency nor any intermediary to transact with your Bitcoin cryptocurrency. In having the largest network effect, makes Bitcoin the most secure blockchain - protected against attacks or takeover by centralized entities. Bitcoin can basically make banks and payment platforms obsolete. Since Bitcoin is governed in a decentralized manner, it is unconfiscatable, censorship resistant and provides a degree of anonymity.

The only way other digital and crypto currencies can compete with Bitcoin, is to aggressively propagate FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about Bitcoins utility as money. In fact, advocates of centralized finance and banking, through ignorance or deception, are promoting blockchain and not Bitcoin as the relevant technology – which is completely false. This allows them to tout their own blockchain solutions as revolutionary financial systems. The rise of blockchain solutions will give us choice of payment platforms, which will naturally lead to competitive fees and even international transactions may become seamless and quicker. However, make no mistake - Institutional digital currencies and corporate  cryptocurrencies will be centralized and privatized.

Centralized blockchains are designed be under the control of authoritative entities. It is no different to the oversight  banks and governments have over our monetary freedoms today - soon corporations like Google and Facebook will digitally host our crypto wallets like banks host our accounts.  You can just imagine how this will reduce our autonomy and privacy further.

Expect the financial playing field to get alot bigger and "dirtier". Spreading misinformation and falsehoods to promote centralized private blockchain soutions over Bitcoin.  Remember, only Bitcoin can allow you to be your own bank, while others will suit the purposes of private institutions - so choose wisely.

As long as Bitcoins evolution continues on its promising path, people who have been educated about Bitcoin will make the right choices for themselves and their families as we move into this new era of money.

 Bitcoin Education is the way to mass adoption. 

How the cryptocurrency market started:
Bitcoin is the worlds first blockchain cryptocurrency created. As the awareness of Bitcoins technological innovation spread, it motivated a plethora of business opportunists to create their own cryptocurrencies and blockchains solutions. These crypto blockchain projects, referred to as Alt-coins, created a marketplace to amass capital funding through ICOs.

The market exploded in 2016-2017 without any regulatory oversight which exposed retail investors and novice traders to the high risk & high reward dynamics that play out in an ungoverned trading environment.

There are now over 2K cryptocurrencies led by Bitcoin that form a vibrant 24 hr nonstop global trading marketplace. Some cryptocurrency blockchain projects try to compete with bitcoin utility as money, while most projects address specific market segments.

Regulatory Actions:
Due to business growth in cryptocurrency eco-space -  governments and financial institutions have now recognized cryptocurrencies as a new asset class (digital assets) which are projected to increase to  over Trillion dollar market capitalization in the coming decades. Therefore regulatory actions (AML, KYC) are being applied in this sphere, to enforce tax and anti-money laundering laws.  Also, many altcoins identified to be securities are being subject to fines for not abiding by security exchange laws. There are also may crypto blockchain projects that have yet to prove their viability. As many projects fail or shutdown by regulators, many more get launched.

The cryptocurrency market stills remains relatively unregulated, with many scams and shady trading practices still taking place - regardless, innovation continues with promising projects that are legitimizing this space.  The potential of this market has not gone unnoticed - financial institutions eagerly wait for legislative approval to begin offering crypto investment products.

Bitcoin Blockchain is unique:
Bitcoin holds a unique position in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin is considered the king of cryptos - it has the most liquidity and market share. Within the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin is used as unit of account - as all altcoins are priced in bitcoin.

It is important to note that Bitcoin is the most decentralized blockchain from all existing crypto/blockchain solutions. Many regard Bitcoin to have the best long term store of value in the crypto space. Often market participants trade cryptocurrencies with a goal to accumulate Bitcoin not fiat.

Stock market exchanges have introduced Bitcoin futures trading (CBOE, ICE, BAKKT) and Bitcoin ETF products are pending approval. The financialization of Bitcoin has only begun.

 
Market volatility:
Cryptocurrency market is highly speculative – it is well known to experience wild price fluctuation within min/hours. It is new market with a relatively small market cap, such that crypto related news or announcements can easily produce market moves.

The volatility is also driven by leverage trading, which has gotten very popular on cryptocurrency exchanges. There are plenty of amateur traders that take on risky leverage positions or fall prey to pump and dump schemes and other manipulations and frauds that exists in this environment.

Skilled traders take advantage of this volatility - while others get burned. Despite the high risks, there are plenty of price prediction hype, analytics and fundamentals that continue to attract new participants into the market.

If you are interested in trading cryptocurrencies, it is highly suggested to learn technical analysis and money management skills.

If you are interested to invest in cryptocurrencies then you must begin to with Bitcoin education. Bitcoin education. It will help you understand the technical and economical fundamentals needed to evaluate the value of other cryptos.
 
Note if you do not know :

• the difference between blockchain vs cryptocurrency
• the difference between decentralization vs centralization  
• What is a token or stablecoin
• How to store crypto securely
  
• what are Pump and Dumps schemes
  

You are not ready to start trading nor investing in crypto – educate yourself first.

The Beginning :
In 2009 Bitcoin blockchain whitepaper was released by an anonymous person or group called Satoshi Nakamoto. His/their purpose was to create a digital money system that did not require trust in ANY central entity to function as a medium of exchange or store of value - a decentralized , deflationary digital global money system as an alternative to the fiat based monetary system that caused the financial crisis of 2008.

Bitcoins software development began as an experiment. The development continued quietly by a grass root movement of computer scientists interested in the Bitcoin technology, and by people who understood the need and potential of a decentralized monetary system. 

First Adopters:
In the beginning, Bitcoin adoption remained within the cypherpunk, gamers, tech geeks libertarians and darknet communities. As more people became aware of Bitcoins powerful concept, a new level of consciousness emerged. People began to understand what is Hard/Sound money versus our present fiat banking system which negatively affect our economical & social well being.  This sparked a social movement to remove money from state centralized control.

Growth -  Incentive Driven Adoption :
As more get educated about Bitcoin - less want to be exposed to the failing central banking system which is leading the world to hyper-inflationary conditions and increasing capital control restrictions.  The well informed are accumulating Bitcoin as a way  to preserve their wealth (like gold/silver) in a financial crisis. 

Infact, high Bitcoin adoption has been observed in authoritarian ruled nations and places experiencing  economic & financial crisis' (cyprus, greece, venezuela to name a few). People have resorted to using Bitcoin as a means of payment as an alternative to their own hyperinflating currency.

While utility of bitcoin as a meduim of exchange or store of value continues to gather momentum due to global economic uncertainties - Bitcoins technology has sparked a digital revolution leading us to new financial paradigms. Advancements in decentralized concepts like DApps, smart contracts , internet of things (IoT), tokenization of economies, has created a marketplace of 1000s of alternative cryptocurrency/blockchain projects lead by the most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Bitcoin remains the most decentralized cryptocurrency, it has the largest network effect and most liquidity in the market. Despite volatility caused by market speculation, Bitcoins price continues to trend up towards exuberant highs. In recognizing Bitcoin market growth potential, regulated institutions have cautiously begun financializing Bitcoin into investment products.

Although Bitcoin is only a 10 yr old software experiment, there is a great deal of long term Bitcoin price predictions, technical analytics and fundamentals driving the price.  This has caught the interest of  masses of people and companies incentivized by profit.

Bitcoin is growing like an organic ecosystem based on  free market dynamics. Bitcoin is not a product, it  has no CEO, no marketing department, nor head office. It is a free and open software protocol with a governance model that is purely based on human incentives : Need and Greed.

Future - Continued development of Bitcoin:
Presently, transactional throughput of Bitcoin is not prepared for mass adoption as a medium of exchange and only provides limited degree of anonymity. Nonetheless, as Bitcoin price speculation, steady network growth and adoption continue - the development of Bitcoin software is  accelerating,
with improvements  being made in areas of privacy, fungability and scalability.

Increasing number of developers, venture capitalists and other technological enthusiasts globally are involved  in Bitcoins software development creating new standards and solutions adhering to Bitcoins core principals. Bitcoins second layer networks (examples Lightning, Liquid) are introducing revolutionary concepts and models on which economies can be built.

Bitcoin as hard/sound money is only the first application of its network. In the coming years,  many envision newly deployed decentralized applications (DApps) that will utilize the Bitcoin protocol and its blockchain. Bitcoins development roadmap is expected to lead the next decentralized evolution of the internet -  famously coined as  "the Internet of Money".

Andreas Antonopolous  -
               "Bitcoin is not something you build companies on top of
                                 Bitcoin is something you build economies on top of "

Bitcoin is basically a digital encrypted form of money (cryptocurrency), that you can hold in your own digital wallet and transact with it as you wish.

Bitcoin use as money :

1- It can be used a Medium of exchange

A person can transfer bitcoin across the internet directly to someone else (peer-to-peer digital transfer).
Much like cash transactions but over the internet in digital form.

Some people use bitcoin as a way to transfer money without the need of intermediary services like banks,  paypal or western union etc ..

In countries experiencing baking crisis , some have resorted to using bitcoin as a form of money to bypass banks that shutdown access to accounts or limit withdrawals

2- It can be used a store of value
Bitcoin is predicted to  increase in value over time.

Most people buy & hold bitcoin as a speculative store of value investment.  These people  believe Bitcoins price will rise significantly in the long term.