The concept for digital money started as early as 1998, from David Chaum's Ecash project. Cryptocurrency is often attributed to a whitepaper published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", detailing a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments.

Owning, trading, and holding cryptocurrency coins are legal in Australia. In 2017 Australia's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF 2006) declared that cryptocurrencies are actually legal.

Regulations governing initial coin offerings (ICO) and coin trading are governed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Digital currencies are a great way to diversify your investment portfolio. Cryptocurrency also helps you reduce exposure to traditional financial institutions, especially in times of economic instability.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission govern ICOs and coin trading.

Just like any other currency, the price of cryptocurrency is influenced by a number of factors. The most important ones are supply and demand, market sentiment, and investor speculation.

Digital currencies can replace cash, though building the infrastructure to support the transition to a fully digital economy might take time. While a lot of people think that the era of cryptocurrencies is now, cryptocurrencies still have a lot to prove in terms of global regulations, price stabilization, and integration with international providers.

Bitcoin has always been the frontrunner, but Ethereum (ETH), the world’s biggest decentralised app platform, has always been a close second to Bitcoin (BTC). Cardano (ADA) is another up-and-coming currency that seeks to make Ethereum’s technology more scalable and interoperable through an academic approach. Litecoin (LTC), another digital currency, has never left the top lists since its release 7 years ago. EOS is another currency that seeks to improve the Ethereum platform.

Cryptocurrency has provided people with an alternative to the traditional banking system. Another upside: cryptocurrency is not backed by any government or centralized institution. Profit is another motivation that drives people to invest in cryptocurrency.

According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO): “If you acquire cryptocurrency as an investment, you may have to pay tax on any capital gain you make on disposal of the cryptocurrency. You will make a capital gain if the capital proceeds from the disposal of the cryptocurrency are more than its cost base.”

Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Monero (XMR) all utilize a Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm. While they all need a specialised rig, mining these coins are cheaper than mining, say, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Proof of Stake (PoS) based cryptocurrencies are even easier to “mine” -- a lot of these currencies simply require users to choose a stake pool to stake their currencies with.

Like with every asset, there are risks involved in trading cryptocurrencies. People lose money in drastic investment calls, as well as the numerous scams circulating around the internet.

We couldn’t stress this enough: it’s very important to do your due diligence before investing into, or buying any cryptocurrency.

Established companies such as Amazon and Microsoft now transact using crypto. A number of companies all over Australia already accept crypto. Businesses across different industries including, but not limited to medical services, accommodation, and restaurants now accept crypto.