Cryptocurrency

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that is not physical – or the currency of one country. It is created by block chain, which is a special digital code. It is not backed by any government, so it is very risky! It is used online, which means you must be careful of scams and fraud and there is no protection if anything goes wrong.

Watch this video and complete the learning activity.

Transcript

Crypto!

Everyone’s talking about it, But what is it?

Think of it as digital money. Bitcoin is the biggest and most popular currency, but there’s others like Ethereum, Cardano or Dogecoin, and many more.

Every cryptocurrency uses its own recording system called a blockchain, which keeps track of all the transactions. These transactions each have special codes which can be super long, making them safer, but if you forget or lose it, your crypto could be gone forever.

Nooooo, my crypto!

Yeah, okay, but is crypto worth it?

Unlike normal money, crypto is not looked after by a bank or the government, so you have no one to talk to if something goes wrong—which makes it risky. And, if you don’t store it securely, hackers and scammers could target it.

Crypto is also influenced by a range of things, like media hype, which drives the price up as quickly as it could come down.

There are risks with any reward – and crypto has mostly risks.

The most important thing to know about crypto is to only put in what you can afford to lose, because it’s a lot like gambling.”

Cryptocurrency learning activity 167 kb, PDF

Understand how cryptocurrency works, what are the risks around it, and how people use it. You can also learn about different types of cryptocurrency and how you store it in a digital wallet.

Download PDF