A THING OR TWO ABOUT BITCOINS...
What are Bitcoins?
Bitcoin is digital money that is rapidly gaining popularity as a payment system.There is no central authority or middleman involved in this peer-to-peer payment network.From a user perspective,bitcoin is nothing more than a mobile app or computer program that provides a personal bitcoin wallet that allows a user to send and receive bitcoins.As such,to get or buy bitcoin you must have a bitcoin address.This is how bitcoin works for most users.Bitcoin is unique that only 21 million units will ever be created.However ,this will never be a limitation because bitcoins can be divided up to 8 decimal places and potentially even smaller units if required.As the average transaction decreases,transactions can be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin,such as milli-bitcoins!
How Does The System Work?
Behind the scenes,the bitcoin network is sharing a public ledger called the "block chain".This ledger contains every transaction ever processed, allowing a user's computer to verify the validity of each transaction.The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures, allowing all users to have full control over sending bitcoins from their bitcoin addresses.In addition anyone can process transactions using the computing power of specialised hardware and earn a reward for this called "mining".
Why Do Bitcoins Have Value?
Bitcoins has the characteristics of money based on the properties of mathematics rather than relying on physical properties or trust in central authorities.With these attributes ,all that is required for a form of money to hold value is trust and adoption.In he case of bitcoin, this can be measured by its growing base of users,merchants, and startups.As with all currency, bitcoin's value comes only and directly from people willing to accept it as payment.
How Does The System Work?
Behind the scenes,the bitcoin network is sharing a public ledger called the "block chain".This ledger contains every transaction ever processed, allowing a user's computer to verify the validity of each transaction.The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures, allowing all users to have full control over sending bitcoins from their bitcoin addresses.In addition anyone can process transactions using the computing power of specialised hardware and earn a reward for this called "mining".
Why Do Bitcoins Have Value?
Bitcoins has the characteristics of money based on the properties of mathematics rather than relying on physical properties or trust in central authorities.With these attributes ,all that is required for a form of money to hold value is trust and adoption.In he case of bitcoin, this can be measured by its growing base of users,merchants, and startups.As with all currency, bitcoin's value comes only and directly from people willing to accept it as payment.
How To Get Bitcoins
- As payment or goods or services
- Buy bitcoins at a bitcoin exchange
- Exchange bitcoins with someone
- Earn bitcoins through competitive mining
