"IS EVERYBODY IN, THE CEREMONY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN"
A SIMPLE INTRODUCTION TO BITCOIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCY
Understanding Cryptocurrency
A basic guide to help you have a better understanding of Bitcoin and the puzzling world of Cryptocurrency.
Currency
Currency means “money currently in use”. US dollars, Great British pounds, European euros, Russian rubles, and the Japanese yen are all government created money known as "Fiat currency" “Fiat” just means an official order or authorisation.
For about 4000 years and around the world, people used shells called "Cowries" as currency. They were naturalally made, unique and could not be maufactured.
After this, about two thousand years ago, in and around Egypt, wheat was used as a currency. Wheat was a valuable commodity at the time, being part of our diet, portable and exchangable.
Presently, governments authorize their worthless paper money as legitimate. We are told to have faith in our governments and banks and use their money, unfortunately the valueless notes are just an idea backed by confidence,
Abandoning The Gold Standard
The American Government held the thirty five dollars per ounce price until the fifteenth of August 1971, when President Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold, therefore completely abandoning the gold standard. Frighteningly one third of Americans still believe that the dollar is still backed by gold! The United Kingdom had previously accomplished this in 1931.
THE COMPLICATIONS OF ABANDONING THE GOLD STANDARD
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Crypto
Crypto is short for cryptography a computer technology used for hiding and securing information.
Cryptocurrency is defined as electronic money made with technology to control how it is made, protect transactions and hide the identity of it's users.The advanced technology effectively give them the same traits as regular cash.
Cryptocurrencies are not made out of thin air, instead people have their computers work many hours and spend massive amounts on electricity to "mine" the digital money, they do this by solving encrypted mathematical equations.
Welcome To Bitcoin
Bitcoin was the first mass adopted cryptocurrency, it was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It is widely believed that he had this idea during or after the 2008 global financial crisis. Bitcoin was a response to the instability of traditional banking.
Nobody knows to this day who he, she or they were, so unfortunately for the creators, they disappeared before Bitcoin became a worthy asset.
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Bitcoin Versus The Dollar
The American Bureau of engraving and printing (BEP) prints billions of U S dollars for the Federal Reserve Bank each year, this year it has escalated to trillions. While it is true that some of the notes are to replace old worn out ones the majority go straight into circulation.
Government Control
Because the government creates all the money, that also means they have complete control of it. If any country, not just America has a severe emergency they can prevent you from accessing your money. this happened in Greece 2015, the Greek Government froze all banks and limited everyone to withdrawing only £55 a day from their own accounts!
The Purpose Of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies
The purpose of Bitcion is for you to control your own money away from the traditional methods of banking. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies allow one person to directly send money to another via the internet, smart phone or tablet. This type of transaction is called "peer-to-peer"
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In other words, Bitcoin allows two people to pay each other directly, whether they are in the same room or the other side of the world. They don't need to use a third party like a bank or Paypal to process their transaction, as you can see peer-to-peer transactions are highly efficient and cost effective.
Unlike "fiat currency" there are only twenty one million Bitcoin that will ever exist making it the equivalent of digital gold. Only eighteen and a half million have been mined so far and the rest are very slowly being created by Bitcoin users.
Bitcoin Mining In Three Stages
Bitcoins are created by a process called "mining" not to be confused with underground caves, flashlights and pick axes. This short video hopefully will make things clearer.
1. Every Bitcoin transaction is recorded and verified on a public , transparent digital record, there are over eight thousand people using their computers to keep identical records of these transactions, also known as blockchains. This is to make sure that no one manipulates or falsifies the data, in other words, public records provide transparency, security and ensures Bitcoin transactions are permanent.
2. Mining is the computer process of recording and verifying information on digital records known as the blockchain. Bitcoin mining requires computers to solve difficult math problems, thus costing the miner a lot of money in electricity to solve the equation.
3. Mining requires a lot of computer power and people do this work for money. Miners are paid in transaction fees, a small amount of Bitcoin paid by people when Bitcoin is sent to each other. The other incentive for miners is that the first computer to solve the difficult math problem will earn 6.25 bitcoin, roughly around fifty five thousand dollars (May 2020).
All of this technology was created by the unknown Satoshi with the advantage that no government or bank controls Bitcoin. In other words Bitcoins users cannot be controlled by corrupt governments and banks.
Real World Use
Many companies accept Bitcoin as payment now, if you install a crypto wallet on your phone and make sure your Bitcoin is accessible on your device, transactions can easily be made via a barcode scanning technique.
Bitcoin has a large use case in Venezuela, where the economy has become hyper-inflated, it has been unofficially adopted as their main currency. A loaf of bread might cost you half a months wages, Bitcoin has come in and provided a new opportunity of fair exchange, since it is not controlled by the government or national bank.
BUYING BITCOIN
Coinbase
Investing in one whole Bitcoin can be expensive but anyone can own Bitcoin by simply buying a fraction of a coin these are called Satoshi's. I found Coinbase to be very user friendly. To open an account just go to the website or download the App. You can purchase easily once you've had your identification verified and added your card details.
Ivan on Tech
I highly recommend The Ivan on Tech Academy, this guys knowledge and passion for all things crypto is fascinating. Well worth signing up for the academy and learning all about the mysterious world of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency!
My achievements with Ivan on Tech Academy
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Hopefully this has given you a better understanding of Bitcoin and the world of Cryptocurrency. I'm firmly of the opinion that this will be the future of money.
From an article by Dani Amsalam
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