Cryptocurrency brought something entirely new to the table. The adoption of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and other related tech has grown exponentially. Still, despite crypto showing up everywhere these days, there’s a lot about it that people don’t know or understand. Here are three rather surprising facts about crypto you might not have known about.

1. Not All Coins Use PoW Mining

Cryptocurrency comes from a process known as mining. The mining traditionally involved a process called proof of work (PoW). This meant that after some large computation occurred, the person who solved the computation or did the mining had to prove the work to verify its legitimacy and create the new block on the chain as well as a coin.

The whole process, for some coins, takes a considerable amount of resources, which soured some people to the idea of cryptocurrency. However, there’s now a large and growing number of cryptocurrencies that make use of a proof of stake (PoS) mining method. This method has a far lower energy cost, making it more efficient, eco-friendly, and more cost-efficient.

A prime example of PoS mining comes from liquid staking tokens. Through this process, you can benefit from the more efficient PoS mining by depositing or staking a token and receiving a derivative token in exchange. You can then use that derivative to earn yield elsewhere while your original token or coin does the same. This makes liquidity built in, hence the term liquid staking.

The process is an easy one to comprehend and use, which makes it an excellent choice for people new to cryptocurrency in general. And that’s just one example of how PoS offers a lot more using a lot less than the power-hungry PoW mining. Yes, there are various ways of mining cryptocurrency beyond what many people assume.

2. No One Knows Who Invented It

Despite the ubiquitousness of cryptocurrency around the world, it’s surprising that no one knows who invented it. Satoshi Nakamoto tends to come up when looking for who invented Bitcoin because that’s the name attached as the author of the original Bitcoin whitepaper. While everyone agrees it’s a pseudonym, no one knows if it’s for a person, group, business, government agency, or what.

Still, shortly after the release of the paper, Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, immediately handed the project off to the community at large, and then disappeared. You’ll find a lot of theories and speculation online, and even some investigations. However, the true identity behind the name remains a complete mystery.

3. Crypto Is Worth Over $1 Trillion

So, here’s an entire industry borne of an anonymous person or persons that requires the solving of complex math problems to develop a decentralized form of currency. It sounds farfetched and yet, crypto, altogether, has a valuation of well over $1 trillion. That’s an incredible market capitalization achieved in only about a decade. Less time than that since the market cap for crypto was only at about $1 billion around 2013.

Cryptocurrency, as an industry, consists of thousands of cryptocurrencies and a huge financial ecosystem that’s still growing. Many people have some familiarity with Bitcoin, as it was the first and remains the poster child for the industry as well as one of the main branches of cryptocurrency that other types of crypto tie to. However, the industry has grown far beyond Bitcoin. Even entire governments have taken up cryptocurrency to help boost their economies.

One of the reasons why crypto remains and continues to grow comes from the vast number of use cases people find for it. All those coins, tokens, altcoins, stablecoins, and various other projects contribute to the whole and continue to attract investors from all levels of society from all over the planet.

These facts about crypto don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to everything and everyone involved in the industry. Crypto routinely moves actions globally at both the micro and macro levels. And, the more you learn about crypto, the more you might find you want to engage with the technology more and more.