What is Cryptocurrency? Your First Step Into Digital Money

So I was trying to explain Bitcoin to my mom last week, and she just stared at me like I was speaking Klingon. "Digital money that lives in computers but costs thousands of dollars?" Yeah, I get why that sounds insane. But here's the thing - crypto isn't nearly as complicated as everyone makes it seem. Once you get the basic idea, it's actually pretty logical. Let me break it down the way I wish someone had explained it to me when I first started. What is Money, Really? Think about that $20 bill in your wallet for a second. It's literally just paper with some ink on it. The only reason it's worth anything is because we all agreed it represents $20 of value. Most of your money isn't even physical anymore anyway. When you check your bank app, you're just looking at numbers on a screen. Your bank is basically saying, "trust us, we owe you this much money." But here's where it gets annoying - your bank controls everything. They decide wh...