Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash and allows payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. It is a digital type of gold. It’s a store of value. It’s fungible and divisible. There are also a finite number of them. You can’t just create a Bitcoin out of thin air. If you are interested in the technical aspects of Bitcoin please read the first White Paper about how Bitcoin works. Bitcoin White Paper.

Bitcoin is not printed like traditional currency like Rands, US Dollars or Euros. It is produced by people who run computers around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems. These are known as Bitcoin Miners, much like mining gold. However, there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins in existence. To use the Bitcoin you will have to pay Miners a very small fee to verify the transaction.

Bitcoin allows any person based anywhere in the world to send and receive Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrency without permission from a financial institution, corporation or government entity. The transaction is instantaneous and the cost is negligible regardless of the amount of Bitcoin being sent or received. Even intermediary banking services are taking on Cryptocurrency. PayPal just announced they will be allowing their users to hold and store Cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin is a decentralized and the largest of it’s kind in terms of total market value. It also was the first blockchain ever used. It is not controlled by any centralized entity, but rather  created and managed through advanced encryption technology known as cryptography.  Today, Bitcoin can be used as a legal form of payment for many different products and services. The transaction fees are substantially lower than typical credit card payments, especially with currencies like Tron or Monero. The other nice thing for a vendor is that the fees are paid by the purchaser and not the vendor.