Cryptocurrency is a digital currency with no physical form or intrinsic value, but is an increasingly hot commodity as Bitcoin, its most well-known iteration, flirts with a record high. Bitcoin, the self-proclaimed original decentralized digital currency, is hovering around US$8,000 as investors pour into alternative currencies. A mathematical proof of work, created by trying billions of calculations per second, is required to confirm a Bitcoin transaction. The more puzzles a miner solves, the more cryptocurrency they earn — incentivizing miners to participate and strengthening the overall system. At the time of writing, one Bitcoin was worth roughly $9,800 (it is highly volatile), while Monero has yet to hit four-digit worth.

Source: CBC News November 19, 2017 22:46 UTC