Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies: A review.

Since the inception of bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrency has expanded into the mainstream, sweeping the market and therefore bitcoin has evolved as the utmost efficient cryptocurrency. A digital currency secured by cryptography is called cryptocurrency. In the world, Bitcoin is the first digital coin to be built on the block chain technology. It is expected to replace the current paper currency as an alternative global currency in the near future. Bitcoins, in contrast to centralized digital currencies, are decentralized digital currencies that may be readily transmitted among each other without any middleman such as banks and monetary institutions. An exhaustive and extensive description of how this type of cryptocurrency is an intriguing area of privacy research communities is provided in this paper along with comprehensive review of various studies related to this research area. The paper also highlights about the merits of cryptocurrencies, such as their security, low transaction costs, and high investment returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]