What is a Cryptocurrency?

Updated from 18/08/2013

A New Concept of Value Exchange System

Cryptocurrencies, digital currency, virtual currency, virtual money, online money, electronic money. We use these names in reference to a new concept of value exchange system.
Digital money is exchanged only electronically. For that, a network of computers typically connected to the Internet and a digitally stored value system are used.
Why Cryptocurrency? The term refers to cryptographic system (coding-mathematical encryption) used to create, store and transfer digital currency.

Perhaps the best known is the Bitcoin cryptocurency, but since the release of Bitcoin in 2009 a multitude of «derivative» coins has emerged, currently exceeding hundreds. Some of them are: Namecoin, PPcoin, Monero, Litecoin and the recent Ethereum.
Although regular coins are digital coins also, we do not include them in this new concept. Our Euros have been stored digitally and have been traveling for many years now, in fact when we make a bank transfer ones and zeros travel the digital networks transmitting money.