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Introduction to Bitcoins
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Movies such as Fifth Element, Terminator, Matrix, and other dystopian futures are highly descriptive in their portrayal of the setting but they always seem to skip over one important detail, the currency in the future. They never seem to take into account the possible change in how currency functions and is exchanged. So, how will our money work in the future? Will it be encoded on electronic tattoos on our arms, will it stay in paper form as it is now or will it become digital.
In 2008 an anonymous user/s by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto published an idea on the internet for an electronic money system. After one year this idea came into existence; Bitcoin. Bitcoin is open sourced - the code is accessible for viewing- and every transaction and deposit is visible for viewing just like in a bank. But unlike a bank, everyone on the Bitcoin network has access to see that transaction or deposit so nothing is a secret. If someone wants to check back to see who gave someone else fifty Bitcoins, they can. In Bitcoin you are connected with complete strangers at all times so you must trust no one, but the system is designed so there is no trust involved by having mathematical functions protect every aspect of the program.
How do I acquire these Bitcoins? Is probably the first question on your mind. Bitcoins can be obtained one of two different ways. One way is to turn real money into Bitcoins at whatever the current exchange rate is. So I can take 1,000$ and if the current exchange rate is at 500$ to one Bitcoin, then I can get 2 Bitcoins. The other way is to mine for Bitcoins. Mining Bitcoins involves using special computer programs to solve math problems and the user earns a proportionate amount of bitcoins as a result. The Bitcoin program...
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...s been used, it has risen slowly, dropped drastically, and recently risen exponentially. If Bitcoin can pull its act together and start provided a more secure and reassured system for the user than it can prosper. Although, if Bitcoin ends up being a large worldwide scam then, it may be wise to pull out all of your money now and better be safe than sorry. Weather you trust Bitcoin or not, it’s still a major advancement in the field of online currency and will most likely further in the creation of more stable digital currencies.
On April 23, 2011 Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged creator of Bitcoin, emailed to his software developers that, “I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.” If he thought of a foundation for a completely original digital currency system, than what is he planning on next?
Works Cited
Los Angeles Times, youtube
Throughout the past decade, costs of everything have skyrocketed. According to Source C, America used to have “five and dime stores;” now its a dollar store. In addition, no one can buy anything with just a penny anymore. The source also made a fair observation that these worthless zinc disks are, “behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers next to your old tin-foil ball. Quarters and dimes circulated; pennies disappear because they are literally more trouble than they are worth.” According to a New York Times article, “it takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” The penny is still stuck in the 1950s while America just keeps moving on. As stated by Mark Lewis in his concept of establishing a bill, “the bill would not ban pennies, but merely discourage their use by establishing a system under which cash transactions would be rounded up or down.” (Source A) This motive will help keep the America exceed and
Bitcoins function as a completely anonymous form of digital currency. They allow people to make peer-to-peer transactions without ever making contact with the individual or exchanging any type of personal information (Zetter par. 6). This allows for quick worldwide transactions but also allow for more criminals to access an account. Since Bitcoins are a digital currency, they are kept and traded completely online. This digital currency functions mainly on the “Deep Web”, which is a part of the internet where many hidden illegal activities take place. To access the Deep Web, all one needs is software (Grossman par. 1-5). This is the area in which Bitcoins thrive since it is hard to regulate what happens on the Deep Web.
Trust is a two way street. Trusting people is somewhat second nature to some. Unfortunately, trust is very hard to come by these days with all of the deception and scams that people are using. A person may think that they could easily spot a scam or detect deception but it is not as easy as it seems. Deception and scams are important tools for illicit actors to use in order to gain the upper hand on whatever the situation may be.
In the present day, the world's economy is ever-changing and adjusting. Many different reasons control the reasons for this. The future of currency is something that can only be predicted and is not guaranteed. However, there are many determing factors behind the changes that can take place. Asia and North America are two continents that have economies that have recently changed or are in the midst of change.
Bitcoin was first proposed by a person known only by the apparent pseudonym of "Satoshi Nakamoto" in 2008. It is an internet based digital currency along with its own payment network which uses strong cryptography to prevent users from illicitly duplicating money. Bitcoin is independent from the control of governments, corporations, or other centralized authorities. This feature tends to appeal to people to use bitcoins for trading. But, it does not enjoy the security and protection which these large bodies can provide, and hence, it becomes volatile and insecure means of trading. Bitcoin needs lots of computers to process and record transactions. This is done by Bitcoin Mining tools. Every time someone successfully "finishes" a transaction, they receive Bitcoins in return. This provides an incentive to keep the currency running.
Money has evolved with the times and is a reflection of the progress of man. Early money was itself a physical commodity, grain, gold or silver. During the vital stage, more symbolic forms of money such as certificates of deposit, bank notes, checks, letters of credit, bonds and other forms of negotiable securities came into prominence. Social development transformed money in to a trust, “In God We Trust' it says on the back of the ten-dollar bill.” (The Ascent of Money, 27) Today money is faith in the person paying us and belief in the person issuing the money he uses or the institution that honors his money. This trust has no end it can be extended to a greater number of individuals.
The documentary Banking on Bitcoin from director Chris Cannucciari was a documentary released in 2016. Throughout this documentary Cannucciari asserts that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is the future. Using Bitcoin experts and enthusiasts, this documentary is working to persuade people that Bitcoins peer to peer non-centralized system is the future and should be used over traditional banking methods. The targeted audience for this documentary is businesses, government officials, and anyone interested in the Bitcoin technology. The tone of this documentary is ardent while also informative.
Bitcoin is a digital currency, similar to cash due to the fact it is instant, however, is not managed or controlled by a central government or organization. Instead, the network is run on thousands of independent user’s computers. None of these computers have more control over the network than any other computer. The network that Bitcoin was founded upon is based on 40 years of research in cryptography and over 20 years of research in cryptocurrencies by thousands of researchers around the world. Bitcoin answered what was thought to be an unsolvable math problem known as the Byzantine Generals Problem.
But Bitcoin (capitalized as a concept, lowercased when referring to units of the currency, according to American Banker) is another animal entirely. It is the first and most famous of a large and growing family of so-called “cryptocurrencies.” Others include Litecoin, Feathercoin, Songcoin (“designed for The Music Industry”), Auroracoin (Iceland only) and Dogecoin (“the fun cryptocurrency”)—but Bitcoin is by far the largest. Its origin is traced to a 2008 paper written by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Newsweek recently claimed to have located the real one, but he promptly denied it, so the whole thing remains quite mysterious.
...tal part of lives just like privacy. Using cryptology provides mechanisms through a digital signature. This signature is inserted using a key (that only the writer of the email possesses) whilst a timestamp binds itself to the document. This type of cryptography is used to control access of security installations or pay-per-view television channels.
According to Zakary M. Seward (2013), “Virtual currencies have been viewed as a form electronic money or area of payment system technology that has been evolving over the last past 20 years” (Seward, 2013). Virtual currency such as Bitcoin are not issues by central bank; instead they are created or mined by a group of anonymous programmers under the name Satoshi Nakamoto (Barry, 2014). Bitcoin can be sent and received through the internet, similar to sending cash digitally. The currency is exchange through the decentralized Bitcoin network, without going through an external financial institution or government. Virtual currency is a big problem. People from all over the word can exchange virtual currencies for traditional currencies through the online services. Many clients exchange goods and services by using virtual currency such Bitcoin. If people buy bitcoins, they don’t physically purchase goods by handing notes or tokens to the seller. They are used for electronic purchases and transfers. A lot of big companies use the form of virtual currency. For example, Apple provides iTunes users the option of buying prepaid iTunes gift cards that contains credits that can be redeemed for music and movies. You...
The invention of money was a major improvement in peoples’ lives. In the past, people usually had to travel all day to find the person who is willing to exchange their goods. In addition, the goods people want to exchange did not have the standard value of measurement. This led to unequal exchanges. Furthermore, it is not convenient to carry heavy goods from one place to another for an exchange. To solve these issues, money will be the only solution. Later, people tend to develop money from cowry shells to credit cards for the convenience and to improve their society.
The invention of money is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of human civilization. From the very beginning of society, people have used money to circumvent the difficulties of bartering and to foster trade and commerce. Since then, money has come a long way. No longer do we need to rely on silver coins, cocoa beans, or even anything of intrinsic value to conduct our business; today, we use paper currency, which is convenient and easy to carry around. But slowly, we are moving into the digital age of money, an age in which less of our money is actually tangible and more of it is just data on a computer server.
Firstly, an insight into crypto-currencies, what they are and how they can benefit the worlds economy. A crypto-currency is ‘digital medium of exchange’(RhettandLink) - managed through extensive encryption techniques known as cryptography. Comparable with fiat money, no group or individual can stunt, increase or abuse the production of crypto-currencies. No economic systems can regulate the production or value of the currency, the system that crypto-currencies are based upon was created by Satoshi Nakamoto - purposely creating Bitcoin which the practise of fractional reserve banking would be virtually impossible. Bitcoin is currently the most successful crypto-currency to date - created in 2009, this anonymous decentralized digital currency has been the target of several raids and hacking sprees; the media are contemplating the significance of Bitcoin in our current worlds economy. Whether it has potential of overruling fiat-currencies or if it’s just a puerile project created by the aberrant Satoshi Nakamoto.
Today, couple of monetary forms are completely upheld by gold or silver. Subsequent to most world monetary standards are fiat cash, the cash supply could increment quickly for political reasons, bringing about inflation. The