Cryptocurrencies and the Digital Euro: their structure and functioning, could they really replace SWIFT?

In the last years cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have captured attention and motivated many fintech and financial institutions to experiment how they could transform the financial services industry. In addition to this, in recent years more and more CBDCs have begun to be talked about and many countries have started to develop their own, each with its own design but all with the same objective. In response to the question "What is Bitcoin?" a comprehensive answer would span various fields, ranging from economics, computer science, law, history, geopolitics, and finance, likely leading to confusion for the interlocutor, as was the case for me when I first approached the subject. This thesis, for this reason, is born with the aim of simplifying these concepts, analyzing key steps to dispel the common feeling of uncertainty people often experience and trying to give an application in our everyday lives. The work will be developed in multiple chapters, starting by introducing the concept of money, its various forms, and how it has originated and evolved over time. It will then move on to cryptocurrencies, examining them from a more theoretical perspective. Finally, it will conclude with an analysis of the Digital Euro, a project still in its embryonic stage but on which Europe is spending high resources