You have probably heard of cryptocurrencies and maybe even friends or relatives who have been involved in this phenomenon. Cryptocurrencies have been on the market for some time and were born from the desire of a software developer to create a decentralized currency system that is not controlled by the central institutions of a state or international. Also, there are no banks on the cryptocurrency market, all the models are for users, who can either produce them or buy and trade them.
Of all the cryptocurrencies that exist in the world now, the best known is bitcoin. Of course, this is one of the most widespread such cryptocurrencies. There are 1929 cryptocurrencies in the world, and their nominal capital (market cap) is somewhere at 223,193,733,060 dollars.
What is bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, developed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. It was born out of the financial crisis of that year, which affected many countries around the world. Bitcoin has also aimed at decentralizing this monetary system and eliminating intermediaries such as banks. Any transaction made today, through the traditional monetary system, involves an intermediary, a bank, PayPal, etc.
These intermediaries offer security systems for the monetary transactions offered, but they are not intangible. Bitcoin, but also the cryptocurrency system in general, eliminates these risks, because all transactions in a certain cryptocurrency are monitored and approved by all users in that network, unequivocally. Thus, if not everyone approves of the authenticity of the coins and the transaction, it cannot take place.
More simply, bitcoin is a 100% virtual currency, which is part of a decentralized peer-to-peer system (from user to user). A bitcoin is the result of checking the algorithm behind it, which when produced (mined) is verified and validated by all users who mine bitcoin.
How do I buy bitcoin?
Bitcoin can be bought with traditional money, on cryptocurrency trading platforms such as Binance. These platforms offer you the opportunity to purchase both bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. You will also find there all the information about the value of a bitcoin, but you should know that the cryptocurrency market is very volatile.
You can buy an entire bitcoin coin or just parts of it, as if you were just buying a slice of pizza if you want. To store bitcoin, you need an electronic wallet. This can be done through a cryptocurrency exchange platform, a wallet hardware or through an online electronic wallet service. You can also buy bitcoin by paying with other cryptocurrencies, but you can also mine it.
How much does a bitcoin cost?
At the moment, a bitcoin costs $ 9,200. But, as I mentioned above, the cryptocurrency market is very volatile, influenced by the number of users who mine a certain currency, the number of transactions made with that currency, the investors who are going to buy or have bought that currency and so on. Further.
Thus, the value of a bitcoin can vary extremely much from one month to another, but even from one day to another. For example, in 2019 bitcoin had a minimum value of about $ 3,400 in January, and the maximum value was about $ 13,650 in June.
How to mine bitcoin?
To mine bitcoin means to produce it, for which you need specific equipment, such as a system consisting of high-performance video cards and processors, called rigs, or equipment called ASICs or FPGAs (exclusive to mining cryptocurrencies).
After purchasing the equipment, hardware, you need some software programming knowledge to put them into operation. In this regard, there are a lot of tutorials that you can use.
When the equipment is functional, you choose the cryptocurrency you want and enter a blockchain, the validation system of that currency. Here, your equipment validates transactions in that cryptocurrency, and you are rewarded with fractions of it or whole coins for your computing power. The more computing power you have, the more transactions you validate and you are rewarded with more fractions of a coin or more cryptocurrencies.
