6. Cryptocurrencies

We’ve seen several instances over the years of people conflating the terms “Bitcoin” and “cryptocurrency”, using the terms interchangeably. Whilst this is understandable, the fact remains that today’s crypto landscape contains several unique categories of coins, each of which contains its own set of technological features and its own set of benefits and use cases. After laying out the distinguishing characteristics between fungible and non-fungible tokens (which we will explore in more depth in Chapter 13) and examining how payment tokens can be used, we explore some of the most prominent types of cryptocurrencies and how they differ from one another: decentralised cryptocurrencies, centralised cryptocurrencies, and privacy coins.