Bitcoin is a form of digital currency which is created and held electronically. No one has control over bitcoins. They are produced by people, running computers all around the world using software that solves mathematical problems.
Bitcoins can be used to buy things online. It is a form of money in online shopping and can be traded same as dollars, euros or any other currency. However, the most important characteristic of bitcoin is, it is decentralized. No single bank or organization owns it. The concept of Bitcoin came up by a software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto. He proposed Bitcoin, which was an electronic payments system based on mathematical proof.
Bitcoins cannot be printed. But it can be created digitally by a community of people and anyone can join as well. Bitcoins are ‘mined’ in a distributed network. They are based on a Mathematical formula and it is freely available. Also, the software is open source for anyone to download, test or reinvent. So, thousands of people have already started creating their own currencies. But still, Bitcoin is the highest priced cryptocurrency so far.
There are 21 million Bitcoins are available around the world and the smallest divisible amount is one hundred millionth and it is named as ‘Satoshi’ after the founder of Bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency is getting famous rapidly and people are putting so much money on it. So, the main reasons for cryptocurrency to be famous can be highlighted as below.
Main unique characteristics of Bitcoins are,
- Decentralized- Bitcoins not controlled by one central authority
- It’s easy to set up – Bitcoin address setup takes less than 30 seconds
- Anonymous –Users can hold multiple bitcoin addresses and they are not linked to names
- Transparent –All the transactions are stored in the network called ‘Blockchain’
- Transactions fee is minuscule
- Fast – It will only take few minutes
- Non-repudiable – Once you sent the bitcoin it is gone forever.No coming back unless the receiver sent it back
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