April 4, 2022:
Rohit Kumar,  Founder & CEO, XPay.Life*, demystifies  crypto currencies
What is Blockchain?
In a world that is pushing pedals on the technology and digital superhighway, words like blockchain, cryptocurrency, bitcoin etc. are now common parlance. Yet, the understanding remains convoluted or limited. So, let’s just get the vocabulary out of the way. What is blockchain? Simply put, blockchain is the enabler of concepts such as cryptocurrency (bitcoin etc.). So, initially, blockchain technology was invented for creating Bitcoin, the first ever kind of cryptocurrency. Of course, cryptocurrency is a digital currency or rather a medium of exchange. The technology itself is quite an evolved one. It is akin or rather it is a decentralised ledger that maintains a record of transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Participants use this technology to confirm transactions without any central clearing authority intervention.
Rise in blockchain and how start-ups are using it for their business or consumers
Blockchain technology is a collaborative technology; helping to improve the way businesses are conducted and increases the fundamentals or rather the cost of trust. Simply because, blockchain technology prevents bitcoins from being hacked, or feigned or double-spent. This puts the people using this technology in charge of it and brings a certain element of trust in this. Businesses are already deploying blockchain as a technology, especially healthcare, supply chain and other industries.
One of  the most enterprising sectors where blockchain is being used is agriculture and thereby helping the related sectors. Blockchain is helping to augment the food supply chain, crop insurance, helping farmers with their crop  transactions and traceability. The technology is almost disrupting the agricultural sector and is a welcome change for what it  can improve for farmers, consumers, and related businesses. Start-ups in India, the US and Europe, along with some presence in North Korea, Australia, Singapore are using this technology to  transform agriculture as an industry. For many other sectors it is still a pipe dream, the desire to move over to blockchain technology, which is simply limited with the knowledge of what is possible and how to go about it.
Blockchain and crypto currencies
Blockchain is the technology driving cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are public ledgers, so it is for everyone to see but there is still a level of anonymity as the identities are not made public. Pysudonomous is what it is! You transact with a private key and are identified with a public key, that is how it works. Cryptocurrencies make good investment options and that is what is creating all the buzz today.
(*XPay Life is India's first Block Chain-enabled transaction framework enabling end-to-end payment flow to accept, process and make  payment)