AT

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Bitcoin - Digital Currency, Online Currency, Online Money

Bitcoin, Digital Currency, Online Currency, Online Money

Bitcoin is a consensus network that allows a new payment scheme and a completely digital money. It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen. From the perspective of the user, Bitcoin is just like cash that you can use online or in the internet. Bitcoin can also be seen as the most prominent triple entry bookkeeping system in existence.

Bitcoin follows the "crypto-currency" concept, this was first described by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list in 1998. It suggests a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority. The first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi left the project in late 2010 without revealing much about himself. The community has since grown exponentially with many developers working on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is nothing more than a mobile app or computer program that provides a personal Bitcoin wallet and allows a user to send and receive bitcoins with them. This is how Bitcoin works for most users.

Bitcoin payments promises easier use than debit or credit card purchases. It can be received without a merchant account. Payments are made from a wallet application, either on your computer or smartphone, by entering the recipient's address, the payment amount, and pressing send. To make it easier to enter a recipient's address, many wallets can obtain the address by scanning a QR code or touching two phones together with NFC technology.

Advantages of Bitcoin:

Freedom of Payment - send and receive any amount of money instantly anywhere in the world at any time. No bank holidays. No borders. No imposed limits. Bitcoin allows its users to be in full control of their money.

Very low fees - Bitcoin payments are currently processed with either no fees at all or extremely small fees.
  
Fewer risks for merchants - Bitcoin transactions are secure, irreversible, and do not contain customers’ sensitive or personal information.
  
Security and control - Bitcoin users are in full control of their transactions; it is impossible for merchants to force unwanted or unnoticed charges as can happen with other payment methods. Bitcoin payments can be made without personal information tied to the transaction. This offers strong protection against identity theft. Bitcoin users can also protect their money with backup and encryption.
  
Transparent and neutral - All information concerning the Bitcoin money supply itself is readily available on the block chain for anybody to verify and use in real-time. No individual or organization can control or manipulate the Bitcoin protocol because it is cryptographically secure. This allows the core of Bitcoin to be trusted for being completely neutral, transparent and predictable.

Disadvantages of Bitcoin:

Degree of acceptance - Many people are still unaware of Bitcoin. Every day, more businesses accept bitcoins because they want the advantages of doing so, but the list remains small and still needs to grow in order to benefit from network effects.

Volatility - The total value of bitcoins in circulation and the number of businesses using Bitcoin are still very small compared to what they could be. Therefore, relatively small events, trades, or business activities can significantly affect the price. In theory, this volatility will decrease as Bitcoin markets and the technology matures. Never before has the world seen a start-up currency, so it is truly difficult (and exciting) to imagine how it will play out.

Ongoing development - Bitcoin software is still in beta with many incomplete features in active development. New tools, features, and services are being developed to make Bitcoin more secure and accessible to the masses. Some of these are still not ready for everyone. Most Bitcoin businesses are new and still offer no insurance. In general, Bitcoin is still in the process of maturing.

Can I make money with Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is an emerging technology it can be a huge investment or it can flop. It is always important to be cautious of anything that sounds too good to be true or disobeys basic economic rules.


1 comment:

  1. BitKONG: Fun and Addictive, provably fair bitcoin game.

    TIP: Claim bitcoins every 10 minutes from the btc faucet.

    ReplyDelete