What Is Cryptocurrency – How It Works, History & Bitcoin Alternatives Cryptocurrency History Bitcoin Alternatives Cryptocurrencies, or virtual currencies, are digital means of exchange created and used by private individuals or groups. Because most cryptocurrencies aren’t regulated by national governments, they’re considered alternative currencies – mediums of financial exchange that exist outside the bounds of state monetary policy. Bitcoin is the preeminent cryptocurrency and first to be used widely. However, hundreds of cryptocurrencies exist, and more spring into being every month. What Is Cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrencies use cryptographic protocols, or extremely complex code systems that encrypt sensitive data transfers, to secure their units of exchange. Cryptocurrency developers build these protocols on advanced mathematics and computer engineering principles that render them virtually impossible to break, and thus to duplicate or counterfeit the protected currencies. Th