Cryptocurrencies or coins, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are the crypto assets that are designed or intended to perform the roles of currency, which means to function as a medium of exchange, a store of value and a unit of account. They are intended to constitute a peer-to-peer alternative to government-issued legal tender.
Cryptocurrencies can be characterized in numerous different ways and we will look at two of them. In particular, we will look at private versus sovereign coins and stable or backed versus non-stable coins.