What Is Bitcoin?
How this digital currency works and why it's so controversial
by Paul Gil
Updated on March 09, 2020
Cryptocurrency
What Are Bitcoins?
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Bitcoin is a virtual currency that gained recognition after its price-per-coin rose above $13,000 in early 2018. The cryptocurrency (one of many) is at the center of a complex intersection of privacy, banking regulations, and technological innovation. Today, some retailers accept bitcoin, while in other jurisdictions, bitcoin is illegal.
Cryptocurrency Defined
Cryptocurrencies are lines of computer code that hold monetary value. These lines of code are created by electricity and high-performance computers.
Cryptocurrency is also known as digital currency. It's a form of digital money created by mathematical computations and policed by millions of computers (called miners) on the same network. Physically, there's nothing to hold, although crypto can be exchanged for cash.
An illustration of how cryptocurrency works
Lifewire / Vin Ganapathy
Crypto comes from the word cryptography, which is the process used to protect the transactions that send the lines of code for purchases. Cryptography also controls the creation of new coins. Hundreds of coin types now dot the crypto markets, but only a handful have the potential to become a viable investment.
Governments have no control over the creation of cryptocurrencies, which is what initially made them so popular. Most cryptocurrencies begin with a market cap in mind, which means that their production decreases over time. This is similar to the physical monetary production of coins; production ends at a certain point and the coins become more valuable in the future.
What Are Bitcoins?
Bitcoin was the first popular cryptocurrency. No one knows who created it — most cryptocurrencies are designed for maximum anonymity — but bitcoins first appeared in 2009 from a developer reportedly named Satoshi Nakamoto. He has since disappeared and left behind a bitcoin fortune.
Because bitcoin was the first major cryptocurrency, all digital currencies created since then are called altcoins, or alternative coins. Litecoin, Peercoin, Feathercoin, Ethereum, and hundreds of other coins are all altcoins because they are not bitcoin.
One of the advantages of bitcoin is that it can be stored offline on local hardware, such as a secure hard drive. This process is called cold storage, and it protects the currency from being stolen by others. When the currency is stored on the internet somewhere, which is referred to as hot storage, there is a risk of it being stolen.
On the flip side, if a person loses access to the hardware that contains the bitcoins, the currency is gone forever. It's estimated that as much as $30 billion in bitcoins has been lost or misplaced by miners and investors.
Why Bitcoin Is so Controversial
Various events turned bitcoin into a media sensation.
From 2011 to 2013, criminal traders made bitcoins famous by buying them in batches of millions of dollars so they could move money outside of the eyes of law enforcement and tax collectors. Subsequently, the value of bitcoins skyrocketed.
Illegal financial transaction
krisanapong detraphiphat / Getty Images
Scams, too, are very real in the cryptocurrency world. Naive and savvy investors alike can lose hundreds or thousands of dollars to scams.
Bitcoins and altcoins are controversial because they take the power of issuing money away from central banks and give it to the general public. Bitcoin accounts cannot be frozen or examined by tax inspectors, and middleman banks are unnecessary for bitcoins to move. Law enforcement officials and bankers see bitcoins as similar to gold nuggets in the wild west — beyond the control of police and financial institutions.
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Put this wallet.dat file on a USB drive in your safe or mail it to your parents. Burn it to a CD and put it in a bank safety deposit box. Put it on a different computer. You can even email the file to yourself. Better yet, do two or three of the above. If you back up the wallet properly and keep it safe, and the likelihood of you losing your Bitcoins will be lower than you dying in a car crash. If you don’t back it up, the likelihood of you losing your coins is high. Important Note: if you use more than 100 Bitcoin addresses with your wallet, you will need to make a new backup file (the first backup will not know about the 101st address).bitcoin кошельки bitcoin converter pos bitcoin monero simplewallet roulette bitcoin rx580 monero tether gps monero новости neo cryptocurrency play bitcoin bitcoin рбк 16 bitcoin bitcoin drip bitcoin автомат bitcoin транзакция лучшие bitcoin fire bitcoin bitcoin обменять bitcoin frog bitcoin card Bitcoin remains the dominant currency, there are many possible outcomesmonero график I’ve also tried to group the different devices in terms of the applications that they’re best suited for. I’ll be giving you my recommendations for Bitcoin mining rigs for:Quality assurancebitcoin 3 bitcoin перевести Hardware Wallet: A small device that is used to keep your private keys safe. Hardware wallets are for people who want to physically hold their bitcoins. Keep your hardware wallet wherever you want then connect the device to your computer when you need to spend some bitcoin. There is a small screen on the device to confirm your transaction details, then it sends the bitcoin payment without your private keys ever being on your computer. Hardware wallets cost about $100 which is cheap considering they allow you to safely store any amount of money and be your own bank. Hardware wallet example: KeepKey Trezor Ledger bitcoin капитализация ethereum cryptocurrency bitcoin шахты monero криптовалюта video bitcoin fenix bitcoin bitcoin compromised get bitcoin monero github monero обмен multisig bitcoin валюта tether
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