“DeFi”ying All Odds: The Rise of CryptocurrenciesThe feat of digital currency first saw the light of the day with the creation of Digicash in 1989, but like any ahead-of-its-time innovation, its days were numbered. A lack of popular support and proper funding were amongst the few grounds that led to its bankruptcy in the 1990s, with almost all its counterparts facing a similar fate. Further efforts to create a notable digital currency proved futile until the advent of Bitcoin in 2009; and as fate would have it, this decentralized cryptocurrency was here to stay and flourish. The year is 2008, and in a bid to disrupt the centralized financial and monetary system that led to the financial crisis, Satoshi Nakamoto (assumed to be a pseudonym) published the concept of Bitcoin through a white paper, with the sole purpose of removing any third-party intermediaries that are traditionally required to conduct financial transactions. A couple of months later, in January 2009, the first Bitcoin transaction took place when Satoshi Nakamoto sent Hal Finney 10 Bitcoins, thereby heralding a decentralization revolution in the financial world.Innovation and competition soon followed suit with Litecoin being launched in 2011, and 2012 witnessing the genesis of cryptocurrency […]