Is Bitcoin Money?
Cryptocurrencies, are digital assets that are secured by means of cryptography. These forms of virtual currencies have been around since the late eighties (Grigg, n.d., par. 2) with more than 600 traded cryptocurrencies on the market today (Coinmarketcap.com, n.d.). Of these, Bitcoin in the largest (White, 2015) and most widely traded. Unlike traditional money that is controlled by a central bank and backed by a government, Bitcoin is transferred from person to person through peer-to-peer interface. There is no intermediary required such as with Visa; rather Bitcoin can be transferred from person to person.
Unlike fiat money, it cannot be artificially inflated because the Bitcoin code is written in such a way that it halves every four years on a set schedule until 2140, guaranteeing that a set amount of Bitcoins, 21 million, will ever be harvested. The genius of Bitcoin lies in its programming with open source code on a public ledger where every transaction is simultaneously anonymous and public. This anonymity creates an untraceable transaction while at the same time allowing users to vet the system and verify transactions. By doing this it avoids the problem of “double spending” and counterfeiting which has inspired trust in its users.
Despite these advantages, in order for a currency to be viable, and be considered “money” it must satisfy several functions: “It must be a medium of exchange; it must serve as a store of value; it must serve as a
Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that serves as a medium of exchange with no central authority and was created to prevent the issue of double spending. This problem is solved with the use of blockchains where miners confirm transactions on a public ledger. As of today, there are over 1,000 different types of cryptocurrencies, and at least 600 of these have listed market caps of over $100,000. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin are top cryptocurrencies trading today with their combined market cap topping $331B. Bitcoin, created in 2009, is the biggest cryptocurrency and has recently reached a net value of over $270 billion, with much of its growth being in the last few months. This has led to much
The most famous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), has surpassed a $5k USD market value on October 12th. People who boarded the bandwagon early are now rejoicing on their fruitful intuition. After several years of unfulfilled promises, the cryptocurrency market has shown huge growth in the past couple of months.
Currency acts as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. Physical currencies are promissory notes payable to the bearer on demand. Digital currencies are internet-based form of currency. They represent both developments in payment systems and a new type of currency. Digital currencies, in hypothesis, serve as money, at present day they act as money to a small amount of individuals and institutions. It has been often questioned as whether the decentralised digital currency, such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, will emerge as the preferred method of payment for Internet Services or will remain a superficial payment method compared to well established existing payment systems.
Obviously, the bitcoin is one of the new flows in international business. However, it has many limits to be a substitute for real currencies. Economy cannot be detached
First, if it's still an international concept for you, cryptocurrency is any of a number of digital money that can be made use of for online deals without intermediaries such as financial institutions. Without financial institutions, cryptocurrency can be traded and made use of for business between 2 or even more individuals without the oversight-- as well as expense-- of those intermediaries.
Money is nothing more than a governmental structure where people are forced to accept the fact that a thin slip of paper holds essential value. For instance, to society, water and gold have two different values, as well as two different functions. Although water is a sustenance, gold is somehow worth more. If humans had no concept of value, we would be less intelligent than monkeys, because even they can understand the difference of value between food and dirt. Different countries have created their own form of currency, the modern dollar bill being created by the United States government. Therefore, the government has the ability to do whatever they wish because they can print more paper money, and ultimately devalue the dollar any time they want.
Money has three principle functions; it is a medium of exchange, unit of account and a store of value (Mishkin, 2016).
Around 1,200 years ago, the pound sterling was created. Serving Great Britain and its territories to this present day, it is one of the most traded currencies in the world. Some 1,000 years later, the dollar came in to existence followed by the Euro at the turn of the millennium. In 2008, a new paradigm, Bitcoin, reared its head into the world economy. Bitcoin sets itself apart from the aforementioned currencies because it doesn’t exist; it is one of many digital currencies, albeit the most popular by far. Bitcoin is a private, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that is slowly gaining prominence. Sitting at over 16 million bitcoins in circulation, the question must be asked whether Bitcoin should be seriously considered as a viable currency as it
The main problem with the Bitcoin is the uncertainty of its volatile value. In the last few months, the value of Bitcoin has been cut in half, in the face of questions about security issues and concerns about new regulations. The idea of a currency not being checked and balanced by any supranational organization or national government leaves many to fear the Bitcoin, not knowing if they invest today, if their money will be there tomorrow. In fact, the United States government hold the biggest amount of Bitcoins at 144,000 coins after the F.B.I seized it from Silk Road, the now-defunct digital market that prosecutors say aided drug deals and other illicit transactions. So if the
The idea of Bitcoin and other virtual forms of currency have sparked a great deal of interest lately amongst the public. In addition, virtual forms of currency have become a media sensation. It’s a new elusive concept that is gaining popularity amongst financial consumers. Over $5 billion in Bitcoin and other decentralized currency are currently in circulation. However, how many people actually understand what the concept of Bitcoin is, or other decentralized currency? Even many who own Bitcoin/other decentralized forms of currency and utilize it in their daily transaction often time do not know how the system work. Recently there were new stories of government interference with Bitcoin businesses. Most consumer have no understanding of why. This general writing requirement attempts to explain the background of Bitcoin and decentralized currency; it further defines why Bitcoin is in popular use; and finally the paper calls for United States government to take an active role in the international regulation of this growing financial scheme.
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
This last benefit is also a risk as having an untraceable currency lends itself to be sought after for criminal activities as it is potentially harder to be traced to its source than cash, the current go to for criminal activity. This will likely
The Federal Reserve allows the assurance of the right quantity of dollars, just enough to keep commerce and trading going without going into hyperinflation. But Bitcoin on the other hand is another type of game entirely. its been the first and more famous of large growing family what I’m saying is there is other type of crpytocurrencies than bitcoin. Other type of currencies include Litecoin, Feathercoin, Songcoin( “Used in the Music Industry”), Auroracoin (used in Iceland) and Dogecoin (“ Like a kids version of bitcoin”), even though there is other type of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is the largest of them all. Its inception can be traced back to 2008 in a paper written by pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Which recently last year Newsweek claimed to have the found the mysterious nakamoto, But he denied all of the reports, so after seven years the whole thing still remains a mystery. According to the official website, Bitcoin is “a peer-to-peer, decentrailized, digital currency whose implementation reilies on principles of cryptography to validate every transaction and generation of the currency itselt”. What this means is that Bitcoin and the rest are digital currencies created and transferred by networking computers with no one in
It’s important to note that since Bitcoins are produced without the involvement of governments or banks, they avoid taxes. Lastly, the cap of 21 million bitcoins has driven the value of a single coin up as shown by the below graph depicting expected growth of coins over time.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and management, rather than relying on central authorities . Bitcoin protocol was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto who described it as a purely peer–to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. The solution they gave for the double spending problem using peer–to-peer network was that the timestamps transactions were hashed into an ongoing chain of hash–based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof –of-work.