If you are still not up to speed or other cryptocurrencies then in a nutshell bitcoin is a digital currency developed in 2008 by someone who used the pseudonym ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ and bitcoin can be purchased using your own money or credit cards.
The cryptocurrency is often used as an investment much like gold and silver bullion, it can also be traded like stocks and shares as well as being used to pay for goods and services online. The cryptocurrency is totally anonymous and decentralized.
Not only can you buy the cryptocurrency but you can also ‘mine’ for them as well. Using your own computer to search for 64-digit numbers you then will be competing with other ‘miners’ to generate the numbers that is being looked for by the bitcoin network, and if you manage to do this then you will earn for yourself twenty-five bitcoins. Bitcoin values, just like stocks and shares, can also vary although by 2140 it is reported that the number of bitcoins actually in circulation is set to be capped at 21 million.
This capping will make the system self-sustaining as well as encrypted and coded to prevent the disruption of the code and also to prevent inflation. Bitcoin is considered the first decentralised cryptocurrency and since it was created it is estimated that there have been over four thousand variants of bitcoin created although bitcoin is still the market leader.
Using your bitcoin to buy a wide range of goods and services online is incredibly popular as bitcoin offers many advantages like the ease of cross-border transaction as well as those transactions being anonymous, and of course if merchants accept bitcoin they are broadening their market considerably.
Buying gift cards using eGifter or Gyft is popular as is paying for flights and hotels through Surf Air CheapAir and Expedia, and if you are looking further afield Virgin Glactic also accepts bitcoin as a payment option for space travel.
Microsoft also accepts bitcoin in its app store and you can also purchase some music using the cryptocurrency. In fact, there are legal and accounting firms that accept bitcoin as a payment method as do some gold traders, pizza deliveries and universities.
Another way to use your bitcoin is to make a wager at one of the high-end casinos or bingo sites and this way of purchasing your games is quite possibly one of the most secure ways of making a bet online as there is no record of accounts online as you would have if you paid for games using your credit card for example, and this means that any criminal elements interested in finding out your personal banking details won’t have a chance of success.
Not only is bitcoin safer for making a bet online it is also super-fast with the majority of transaction being confirmed within a few minutes and remember too that the fees incurred for using bitcoin to those compared to using a credit card are tiny making the cryptocurrency a popular alternative.
