In December of 2012, I remember sitting with my friend in a small Lebanese restaurant in a lovely morning with the sun shining and a small cloud situated above us as an umbrella. We had breakfast and talked about current news. “Have you heard about Bitcoin? It’s a new & novel rising currency” he said. He explained it to me but I was reluctant & in doubt of its success. “It’s probably a scam. I’m not going to risk 3000$” I said. Had I bought some Bitcoins then, I would’ve made a profit of 9900% in just a year. That is in a year, the 10 thousand dollars would’ve been worth one million dollars!
Bitcoins aren’t just an investment option. It is a new innovative independent transactional platform. It’s is the first implementation of crypto-currencies, which are virtual digital currencies that exploit the principles of cryptography and was first proposed by Wei Dai in 1998. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer (P2P) consensus network that introduces a new digital medium of exchange. A P2P network has no centralized organization, just as when downloading a torrent file, pieces of the file or all are located & shared between peers (other individuals). Bitcoin may be probably the biggest distributed computing project in the world. Bitcoin has a public ledger called “Block chain” which records the history of all the transactions that have occurred since the foundation of Bitcoin. In a sense, it could be thought of as a black box of the platform that is available to all users to read & view. Each digital wallet has an address known to all users. The amount in that address and its transactional record is open to the public, however; no personal information is known or needed. Each address or wallet has a private key only with which you could a...
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... currency is in USD. If Bitcoin meets its expectations and pulls the rug from under the USD as a leading choice for a reserve currency this will severely affect the US economy and its status as one of the most powerful countries in the world.
With its decentralized convenient platform, privacy and inflation-resistance. Bitcoin sets itself as a leading contender in future global commerce. In addition to integrating privacy and transparency, removing the need for a third trusted party in a transaction is an undeniable breakthrough in electronic and financial transaction. However, Bitcoin’s future path is threatened by cyber-attacks and governmental opposition. It is intriguing to imagine a world with a globally unified digital currency. I could picture myself in the future setting with my grandchildren in that Lebanese restaurant and paying the bill in Bitcoins.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that was started in 2009. It is a digital representation of currency with no actual tangible representation. Bitcoin, commonly abbreviated as BTC or XBT, is distributed worldwide, decentralized digital money (also called cryptocurrency). It is decentralized, meaning it is not controlled nor backed up by any government, country, or individual entity. Unlike traditional currencies, such as dollars and euros, bitcoins are issued and managed without any regulation from any central government. Thus, it is more resistant to inflation and corruption. A Bitcoin derives its value basically from the demand and usage of bitcoins, similar to a stock. Bitcoin doesn’t derive its value from the government; it derives its value from the people. The more that use/accept it, the more of a demand there for it, and the more valuable it becomes. Bitcoin is controlled by the people; you are your own bank. Transaction terms are determined by the user. Bitcoins can be bought with credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, or even going to a local bitcoin exchange and buying them with cash. A person can acquire bitcoins as a payment for goods or services, purchase them with real money at a Bitcoin exchange, exchange bitcoins with someone you know, or earn bitcoins through performing mining services for the network. It has value and can be exchanged for real physical money, it’s valued exchange rate goes up and down like a stock, and it’s traded online like PayPal, but it is none of these. It’s widely considered as the future of world currency, but also scrutinized as a gateway for illegal activity. So which is it?
Goodale, Gloria. "Rise of Bitcoin: Is the digital currency a solution or a menace? (+video)." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. .
The topic that I’m going to write about in this paper will be on the electronic currency released in 2009 known as Bitcoins. Bitcoins is a type of currency that entails computer software to be used with one person exchanging with another person for a different kind of trading option such as the US dollar, products or services. There is a fourth reason why Bitcoins can be exchanged which is done when a person is mining, that occurs when a participant acts as a mediator for transactions whereas mediator approves and documents. Bitcoins is one of the largest and first electronic currencies ever created by any developer including the makers Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoins doesn’t meet the characteristic guidelines to be considered an actual type of currency, though the US Treasury recognizes it as a type of decentralized currency in that no person or organization including governments oversees the transaction of Bitcoins.
Strong is good. Weak is bad. These generalizations sound simple enough, but they can be very confusing when come to money. Is a "strong" U.S. dollar always good? Is a "weak" dollar always bad? Understanding of it is a necessary in marketplace. The term such as “Strong” and “weak” dollar is a “hot topic” which always bandied about by economist on a daily basis and also public. This issue is so important to almost every one. It seems like part and parcel of people who very concern about currency likes investors, economist, foreigners who study or working in the United State and so on.
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.
In July 2015, many of the world’s high ranking cryptographers published that the loss and destruction induced by adopting a key escrow system 20 years ago would be even more serious, that would be very hard to identify security weaknesses that could be misused by
Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that is similar to physical cash stored in a digital form. It is the first fully implemented cryptocurrency protocol utilizing an open source peer-to-peer payment system. As a transfer protocol, it fundamentally functions as a money transfer medium that sends bitcoins from user to user without the need of a third-party intermediary and the system is protected by peer-reviewed cryptographic algorithms. This cryptographic digital currency simultaneously provides users a method to exchange money for free or a nominal fee, which is mutually beneficial for retailers and consumers. The main concern is that it can be used for illegal activities such as the purchase of drugs, weapons and other illegal goods. Albeit true, the concern also exists with all other forms of regulated currency, such as cash and wire transfers. Anonymity is one of the greatest Bitcoin perks, however, nothing is as untraceable as cash. It is the solution to the leading economic and security issues that have left everyone vulnerable, particularly in the wake after the Target security breach in which hackers stole unencrypted credit card and debit card data for 40 million customers’ as well as their pins over the span of two weeks before it was detected. In addition, these hackers were also able to obtain the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of 70 million customers (Andreesen 6). If Bitcoin were to be used as the standard form of payment, the transaction data does not identify the purchaser’s identity and all information is encrypted. It is the most secure payment method and is a more secure future. Bitcoin is a technologically innovative soluti...
Cryptocurrencies are much confused mostly especially with their features. They are software-based currencies that are computerized using specific software. Bitcoin for example, is built and mined from the ground like gold and made to be decentralized as well as anonymous feature. All the users are legible to access the software as they are all open and made public for any user to access. This mean s that the cryptocurrency operators have allowed all users the freedom to perform any activity on the websites that deal with cryptocurrencies.
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.
Digital money is undeniably convenient; anyone who has used a credit or debit card understands this. However, the era of digital money is only beginning; rapid technological advances will continue to make paper money a remnant of the past. Several innovations are already lessening the burden in your wallet. For instance, the seemingly innocuous mobile phone is actually playing an increasing role in facilitating monetary transactions, especially in Asia. Already, in Japan, large companies such as Coca-Cola have sanctioned vending machines that are not only compatible with common cell phones but also allow consumers to earn credits for using them (Kupetz). In this regard, the United States is strikingly behind the times when compared to other countries. Another new technology in the vein of mobile phones is no-contact cards. These innovative cards do not require a cashier to conduct a transaction; one simply holds a specia...
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.
A cashless society will further improve the globalisation that characterise our present time. The computerised systems can be used to decrease the quantity of paper trail therefore substituting paper cash with cashless credits or electronic money transfers. However, in a cashless economy, this will change with certain crimes almost eradicated. It will also be faster to generate electronic payments than cash as Near Field Communications (NFC) chips make their way into more payments cards and mobile handsets as well providing protection not applicable to purchases made using cash. This technology is simple with low power wireless link evolved from radio-frequency identification (RFID) tech that can transfer small amounts of data between two devices identifying us and our bank account to a computer. Another benefit of drawing nearer to a cashless society is that other companies are providing pioneering cash-free solutions to the payment related problems we come across. For example, WisePay, a provider of e-payments services, is deploying technologies that ensure parents no longer have to worry about sending their children to school with cash to pay for meals, excursions and other fees that will eliminate the likelihood of being caught short for cash or children misplacing money. The Government also has valuable explanations why they may deem to turn away from cash. Due the main factor of printing and distributing cash, not to mention ensuring the economy is free from forgeries which are all costly endeavours estimating that the cost to society of using cash is between 0.5 and 1.5% of GDP annually. In addition, there are many technological innovations that propose there is a real enthusiasm for an alternative to cash with the upsurge...
The U.S. dollar is used in most international transactions, and so what happens to the U.S.A. economy will be affected by the international financial resources.