What is Bitcoin?
If
you want to know what is Bitcoin, how you can get it and how it can
help you, without floundering into technical details, this guide is for
you. It will explain how the system works, how you can use it for your
profit, which scams to avoid. It will also direct you to resources that
will help you store and use your first pieces of digital currency.
What is Bitcoin in a nutshell
Small
wonder that Bitcoin emerged in 2008 just after Occupy Wall Street
accused big banks of misusing borrowers money, duping clients, rigging
the system, and charging boggling fees. Bitcoin pioneers wanted to put
the seller in charge, eliminate the middleman, cancel interest fees, and
make transactions transparent, to hack corruption and cut fees. They
created a decentralized system, where you could control your funds and
know what was going on.
Bitcoin has come far in a relatively
short time. All over the world, companies, from REEDS Jewelers, a large
jewelry chain in the US, to a private hospital in Warsaw, Poland, accept
its currency. Billion dollar businesses such as Dell, Expedia, PayPal,
and Microsoft do, too. Websites promote it, publications such as Bitcoin
Magazine publish its news, forums discuss cryptocurrency and trade its
coins. It has its application programming interface (API), price index,
and exchange rate.
Problems include thieves hacking
accounts, high volatility, and transaction delays. On the other hand,
people in third world countries may find Bitcoin their most reliable
channel yet for giving or receiving money.
What is Bitcoin in-depth?
At
its simplest, Bitcoin is either virtual currency or reference to the
technology. You can make transactions by check, wiring, or cash. You can
also use Bitcoin (or BTC), where you refer the purchaser to your
signature, which is a long line of security code encrypted with 16
distinct symbols. The purchaser decodes the code with his smartphone to
get your cryptocurrency. Put another way; cryptocurrency is an exchange
of digital information that allows you to buy or sell goods and
services.The transaction gains its security and trust by running on a
peer-to-peer computer network that is similar to Skype, or BitTorrent, a
file-sharing system.
Bitcoin Transactional properties:
1.)
Irreversible: After confirmation, a transaction cant be reversed. By
nobody. And nobody means nobody. Not you, not your bank, not the
president of the United States, not Satoshi, not your miner. Nobody. If
you send money, you send it. Period. No one can help you, if you sent
your funds to a scammer or if a hacker stole them from your computer.
There is no safety net.
2.) Pseudonymous: Neither transactions or
accounts are connected to real world identities. You receive Bitcoins
on so-called addresses, which are randomly seeming chains of around 30
characters. While it is usually possible to analyze the transaction
flow, it is not necessarily possible to connect the real world identity
of users with those addresses.
3.) Fast and global: Transaction
is propagated nearly instantly in the network and are confirmed in a
couple of minutes. Since they happen in a global network of computers
they are completely indifferent of your physical location. It doesnt
matter if I send Bitcoin to my neighbour or to someone on the other side
of the world.
4.) Secure: Bitcoin funds are locked in a public
key cryptography system. Only the owner of the private key can send
cryptocurrency. Strong cryptography and the magic of big numbers makes
it impossible to break this scheme. A Bitcoin address is more secure
than Fort Knox.
5.) Permissionless: You dont have to ask anybody
to use cryptocurrency. Its just a software that everybody can download
for free. After you installed it, you can receive and send Bitcoins or
other cryptocurrencies. No one can prevent you. There is no gatekeeper.