Build Cryptocurrency Applications

Understanding opensource is important for anyone getting into cryptocurrency - whether it's developers mining crypto, policymakers regulating laws around crypto, or the public transacting with crypto. The backbone of many major Cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) and Blockchain is open-source software. While this is a concept anyone in the tech industry will already understand, the rest of the audience may not fully grasp its relevance. Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer decentralized digital currency and probably the most popular cryptocurrency today, is open source. The design is open to the community and anyone can contribute towards making the platform better. Developers can also use Bitcoin's source code to build their own services or software. How would this differ from a privately owned cryptocurrency? Firstly, as long as crypto transactions are happening over a blockchain network the transactions are decentralized. This means there is no need for a central clearing authority and transactions happen peer-to-peer. Even with this setup, however, the body owning the cryptocurrency can apply policies and regulations to the platform. They can control the value of the currency, they can restrict its daily usage, they can limit its use to selective products/services, they can control the supply, etc. This setup can quickly become tantamount to a regulatory body like the government that maintains authority over currency and transactions, and in a sense becomes a centralized (controlled) form of currency. Open source prevents this from happening. The cryptocurrency delivers all required functionality - users can perform transactions using crypto, and no element in the network, neither the platform nor the transactions, is controlled by a central body. When you use open source crypto for applications, you own the underlying software and no entity can claim stake or influence its functionality.