human
I've been hearing a lot of hype about cryptocurrencies lately. What exactly are they?
assistant
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are secured by cryptography, which makes them decentralized and anonymous. They are also typically not backed by any central bank or government. Instead, they are created, stored and traded on blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger system that records transactions across a network of computers. This makes it virtually impossible to counterfeit or double spend the currency.