Ten interesting facts about Bitcoin

2017-02-20 00:00:00

The world was swept by a real "cryptocurrency" fever. But most peoples awareness of Bitcoin boils down to a few things that are common knowledge. Whereas the history of the formation of the first digital currency is literally replete with fascinating stories. Today we will talk about ten of the most curious facts that clearly reflect the characteristics of Bitcoin.

1. Digital money is very convenient

Virtual wallets are a much more convenient tool than a plastic card. After all, the user can, at his own discretion, customize the application created for storing crypto coins. At the same time, the functionality of different versions of the wallet is limited only by the imagination of the programmer. You can configure the program to use the funds stored in the wallet only within a specific locality. It is possible to form a "treasure chest" - virtual coins, which will be accessed by a user who finds himself at the right time and in a certain place. Many people set up the appearance of funds for a predetermined date, for example, the childs majority. As you can see, the potential of digital wallets is limited only by our imagination.

2. The most expensive pizza in history

The value of a Bitcoin coin is not determined by the government or other centralized authority, but by market demand. Florida-based Laszlo Hanech is known as the worlds first buyer to pay with Bitcoins. He ordered two pizzas for ten thousand coins. At the July 2010 Bitcoin exchange rate, the purchase cost him thirty dollars. But today this amount is calculated in the millions. For the next year and a half, Bitcoins remained idle with the seller. This event became significant and determined the price of the coin as a third of a cent. For more than a year, the exchange rate remained at the same level, and then began to gradually grow, adding eight cents a week. As a result, there was a sharp rise, thanks to which the value of Bitcoin increased several times. Subsequently, he will surprise us more than once with sharp increases in the rate.

3. Bitcoin millionaires

In 2013, the value of the first cryptocurrency increased from thirteen to one thousand dollars, demonstrating an increase in the rate of almost seven thousand times. People who invested thirteen thousand American rubles in the purchase of Bitcoins in the first days of the year turned into millionaires by the end of December. If this trend continued, the owners of the virtual coin, within two years, would become billionaires. But, sharp jumps were often replaced by a sudden drop in the exchange rate. Sometimes users started the year with Bitcoin millionaires, but by the summer they lost half of their fortune. And although the value of the cryptocurrency is gradually increasing, reaching new records, investors who work with this tool will not be hampered by strong nerves.

4. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency

As the recognition of Bitcoin has grown, hundreds of other digital currency options have emerged. Exchange platforms have emerged that actively trade in Litecoins, Ether, Dogoins, Pircoins and other types of virtual coins on the global web. Millions of people around the world are actively investing in cryptocurrency in the hope of "catching the bird of luck", as has already happened with Bitcoin. But in the vast majority of cases, the so-called altcoins are just a pale copy of the brilliant invention of Satoshi Nakamoto and disappear from the market after a few months or even days.

5. The Bitcoin system uses the most powerful computer in the world

All over the planet, there are many complexes, called farms, which include tens and hundreds of thousands of modern computers. Total computing power is thousands of times higher than the best devices. Moreover, this value is constantly growing. The computing power of the Bitcoin network is measured in petaflops. The speed of their work is much higher than that of five hundred supercomputers assembled from all over the planet. As an example, we can take an ordinary mouse and an adult elephant, the weight of which reaches five tons. This is how the power of the Bitcoin network and devices, on which the best minds of mankind have been working for more than one year, is measured.

6. Amazing features of a cryptocurrency wallet

To use digital coins, you need to create a virtual storage for them. Immediately you need to warn that this is a very time-consuming and expensive process - you will need a lot of certificates, permits, you will need to go through several stages of identification, pay a commission. In fact, this is all a joke! Anyone can create a Bitcoin wallet without asking anyones permission or notifying anyone. A special advantage is the ability to open an unlimited number of vaults. To protect the wallet, you can set two or more passwords. To protect the virtual wallet from hacker attacks, a paper version is provided. It can be printed on a sheet and stored in a safe place.

7. Bitcoin is available to everyone on our planet

A smartphone is expected to hit the market for only twenty-five dollars. It is possible that in the near future the number of mobile devices will exceed the number of inhabitants of the earth. In some developing countries, landline telephony has not been widely adopted. But residents have already received access to cellular communications. Today, even the inhabitants of the most remote African villages have mobile phones. Even the lack of electricity is not a problem; in this case, solar panels come to the rescue. At the same time, most of the population of third world countries is deprived of access to banking services. Statistics show that only five percent of residents in such regions have an account with a financial institution. The real breakthrough for them will be Bitcoins, which can be accessed using a smartphone. Thanks to cryptocurrency transfers, entire villages have been saved from poverty. They were able to buy goods all over the world with virtual coins. Whereas before the only alternative was cash and the nearest point of sale.

8. The story of the greatness and fall of Mt Gox

The first global platform to trade Bitcoins was the Magix The Gathering Online eXchnge (abbreviated Mt Gox) exchange platform. Its name was taken from the popular Magic Cards game. During its heyday, about 80% of all world transactions involving cryptocurrency took place on this exchange. The site began operating back in the years when one virtual coin was valued at a few cents. As the value of Bitcoin increased, the game became more serious. Such a load turned out to be unbearable for a small company, whose creators did not really understand the intricacies of financial services. As a result, the exchange went bankrupt, by the way, like most of the sites that started working at the very beginning of the formation of Bitcoin. They were replaced by large companies, whose employees are rightly considered the real "sharks" of the financial market. Such a revolution only benefited the cryptocurrency industry, which has become more professional and, accordingly, reliable.

9. The emergence of satoshi - bitcoins bargaining chip

One Bitcoin coin is divided into 100 million pieces. This is not very convenient for users, as the value of the whole coin has increased to 1000 US dollars. Therefore, there was a need to use a larger unit for ease of calculation. As a result of lengthy discussions, one hundred millionth part was called the cue ball. As a result, if, for example, in a Bitcoin cafe you had to pay 0.00085 coins for a cup of coffee, now you will be billed with 850 bits, which is very convenient for manipulating virtual coins.

10. Access to banking functionality anywhere in the world

A large amount of cash, plastic cards and modern safes are slowly becoming a thing of the past. They simply disappeared with the advent of Bitcoin. After all, an unlimited amount of money can fit in the smallest unit of information, and thanks to the secret code, the user gets access to the cryptocurrency network. Unlike a gold bar or large amounts of cash, digital coins are easy to move. All the user needs is a key and any device with access to the global web. Thanks to modern technologies, the owner of Bitcoins will get access to them from anywhere in the world where there is Internet. Thus, money always remains at the disposal of its rightful owner. They move with him across state borders, and no border control can restrict access to them.

This is not a complete list of interesting facts about the first cryptocurrency. It is possible to describe its advantages over traditional monetary units for a long time. But than reading it a hundred times, its better to try it once.