What exactly is bitcoin?
A bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and can be referred to as a type of electronic cash. It is a decentralized digital currency which means it exists without a central bank or any other form of an administrator. The transactions of bitcoins are verified by different networks of nodes through cryptographic algorithms and are recorded in a public distributed ledger which is known as a blockchain. In general, it could be referred to as a digital currency which is used as well as distributed electronically.
History of bitcoin
The person or the group of people who invented bitcoin still remains unknown but it was released under the alias of Satoshi Nakamoto. The true identity of Nakamoto was never found out while various people have claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto while various others have denied being Nakamoto. It was anticipated that Nakamoto owns more than one million bitcoins which approximately amounts to 45 billion dollars. It was designed as a reward for the process which is known as mining and was released in the year 2009 as an open source software. Bitcoins can be used as a method of payment for products, services and other currencies as well. The bitcoins have been highly criticized on the grounds that it can be used illegally in transactions, it consumes electricity at a high rate, price volatility, risk of thefts from the exchanges and that a bitcoin can possibly be an economic bubble. People have also used bitcoins as an investment despite the investor alerts issued by various regulatory agencies.
Characteristics of bitcoins
- It is decentralized.
- It is anonymous. Not much is known about the history of bitcoins.
- It is transparent.
- It is fast to process but the transaction is irreversible.
Mining hardware of Bitcoin
There are two options available to people for bitcoin mining. These options include hardware mining and cloud mining. Cloud mining is a process which is done remotely without any equipment for physical mining. Whereas hardware mining includes the complete package. Generally, people used to prefer to set up a bitcoin miner instead of cloud mining because it gives more profit in many cases. But in recent times, the difficulty has been rising and the reduction in rewards during the new block generation, the endeavor is suitable only for big companies. The setting up of a bitcoin miner is hugely expensive and new upgraded versions are launched quite often.
- The first type of bitcoin mining hardware was the GPU/CPU Bitcoin miners but is now considered as the least powerful bitcoin miner. The mining of bitcoins is done by using the CPU of the computer. The GPU is added in order to increase the hash rate. Bitcoin mining has become quite difficult in recent years and it has become almost impossible to earn any profit for GPU/CPU bitcoin mining.
- The FPGA or Field Programmable Gate Array bitcoin miners is a designed circuit for the configuration after building. The hardware manufacturers can buy chips in large quantities. These chips can be customized for bitcoin mining before they could be installed on their equipment. The performance of the FPGA bitcoin miners is a lot better than CPU/GPU bitcoin miners.
- The ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) bitcoin miners is considered the best bitcoin miner because they are comparatively fast and consume low power as compared to other bitcoin miner hardware. These were specifically designed for the sole purpose of bitcoin mining. However, this bitcoin miner is quite expensive.
Pros of bitcoins
There are several benefits of bitcoins as and when used as a part of the payment system or otherwise. One of the major benefits of using bitcoins as a payment system over the traditional banks is that it allows for an international transfer of funds without the hassle of going through currency conversions. Below is the list of benefits of bitcoins:
- It poses lower fraud risks for the buyers. Through the use of bitcoins, the buyers can proceed with the payments without disclosing any personal and financial information. One thing which the credit cards fail to offer is a specific degree of financial anonymity to the buyer which can be achieved with bitcoins.
- Bitcoins are digital cash and hence cannot be intercepted by hackers in any way. It also helps to prevent the targeted breach of data.
- Individuals can preserve coins and reduce the risk of inflation. It can be said that with bitcoins, the risk of inflation is basically zero. Inflation occurs when the government of a country continuously issues more money for over a year and eventually reduces the purchasing power of the people. The bitcoins were designed with the main purpose of remaining finite and hence with no possibility of an issue of excess currency, there is no threat of inflation.
- The transaction fees for bitcoin payments are comparatively lower as compared to the transaction fees for debit and credit card purchases.
- Bitcoins can be easily used in any situation. The bitcoins have also made international transactions comparatively easy. People who use bitcoin can use the same currency in different countries.
The downside of using bitcoins
Everything which has its advantages will also come with some disadvantages. The use of bitcoins is encouraged in some countries while it is banned in several others. Even if it is legalized in some countries, some governments still don’t have any proper guidelines for the functioning of bitcoins. The buyer needs an alphanumeric password in order to access their bitcoin wallet without which it cannot be used. The continuous development and the rise in its value have disheartened people from investing in it altogether.
Incredible perks of bitcoins
There are various benefits of using bitcoins as a system of payment some of which are recognized while others have not come to light. These additional benefits of bitcoins can include that there is no involvement of the third party, quick and cheap transfer or payments, international payments can be made easily, irreversible transactions, and no paperwork involved. The bitcoins also offer various opportunities in different business ventures such as small contracts, asset distribution, bitcoin mining, and wallet building technology.
Short Summary
Bitcoin: everything you need to know
Introduction of bitcoin
A bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and can be referred to as a type of electronic cash. In general, it could be referred to as a digital currency which is used as well as distributed electronically. The person or the group of people who are responsible for inventing the bitcoins still remains unknown but it was released under the alias of Satoshi Nakamoto. It was designed as a reward for the mining process and was released in the year 2009 as an open source software. The bitcoins can be exchanged for products, services, and other currencies as well.
There are various benefits of bitcoins. One of the most prominent benefits of bitcoins as a payment system over the traditional banks is that it allows for an international transfer of funds without the currency conversions. It poses lower fraud risks for the buyers. The bitcoins can neither be hacked nor intercepted by the hackers. The rate of inflation can also be reduced if the individuals can preserve the coins. The transaction fees for bitcoin payments are comparatively lower as compared to the transaction fees for debit and credit card purchases. With all the benefits it offers, it also has a wide range of disadvantages. Bitcoins are encouraged in some countries while it is banned in several others. The buyer also needs an alphanumeric password in order to access their bitcoin wallet without which it cannot be used.
There are various reasons for the variations in the prices of the cryptocurrency and it changes almost every second. And the fact that the cryptocurrency market is entirely independent of the formal regulations results in extreme changes in the prices. The latest price recorded of the bitcoins was 4025.41 USD which is 1.98 percent less than the previous price.