Peer-to-Peer Payment Systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) payment systems are a group of Internet applications and related digital currencies (often called cryptocurrencies) that are used to transfer payment between individuals without the need for a third party guaranteeing the transaction, such as a bank or brokerage firm. All parts of the transactions are performed and secured by the users of the overall currency network. For these P2P payment systems, national currencies are not generally used, rather virtual currencies are. Bitcoin, created in 2008, is the most common form of virtual currency used in P2P systems (and one of the earliest created). Other major cryptocurrencies include Ethereum, Ripple, and EOS. These currencies can be exchanged for national currency on a number of different exchanges with the exchange rate fluctuating significantly over ...