Where did Bitcoins come from Where did Bitcoins come from TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Aug 17, 2021, 09:04 IST Facebook Twitter Linkedin EMail Buying your first cryptocurrency? Here’s what you must know NEW DELHI: Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that’s a little more than 12 years old.It was invented by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and released as open-source software in early 2009.The first bitcoin transaction took place between Nakamoto and an early adopter of bitcoin in January 2009.For the uninitiated, a bitcoin address is generated once you install a bitcoin wallet on your phone or computer.You can share this address with acquaintances who can use it to pay you or vice-versa.This is similar to how email works.
The catch is bitcoin addresses are meant to be used only once Since they exist in the digital and not the physical world, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also known as digital currencies.They came into being as a result of the global financial crisis of 2008.
The crisis, critics believe, saw the birth of bitcoin, which could bypass the banking system.Bitcoins work on three main principles – cryptography, demand and supply, and decentralized networks.In a decentralized network, data is everywhere.Similar to how radio messages were converted into code during World War II, bitcoin uses cryptography to keep transaction data secure.According to a study ‘Bitcoin – At the Tipping Point’ authored by Kathleen Boyle , managing editor, Citi GPS in March 2021, the market value of bitcoin in 2014, when it was just five years old, was around $6.2 billion.The First Citi GPS venture into digital currency was in 2014 when it featured in their second Disruptive Innovations report.Boyle notes that the uptake of bitcoin in the past 7 years (since the 2014 report) has been quite extraordinary.From a market value of around $6.2 billion, the market capitalization of bitcoin due to increased usage and value hit $1 trillion in February 2021.
It has also created a whole new ecosystem around it.The evolution of the bitcoin ecosystem will see the private and public sectors face new challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities.Governments may discover new methods for executing their mission as regulator and law enforcer.Corporates may use this technology to come up with innovative products and services.Adding transactions to a public ledger creates bitcoins from bitcoin mining.An algorithm controls mining difficulty and has limited total coin creation to 21 million.Since coins are created and distributed via a controlled algorithm, the system avoids inflation of the currency and ensures a steady flow of new coins.How long does it take to mine a bitcoin? Bitcoin uses the Proof of Work consensus algorithm as the basis of its security.
This means that like many other cryptocurrencies, a network of cryptocurrency miners are used to discover blocks and add pending transactions to them and make the whole process irreversible.The block discovery process takes approximately 10 minutes per block resulting in the mining of a fixed number of new bitcoins per block, which is currently set at 6.25 BTC/block, but halves approximately every four years .This reduces the number of bitcoins mined with each newly discovered block.How to get a bitcoin You can buy bitcoins online using a bitcoin wallet.
You can also get them in person using websites such as CoinATMRadar and Liberty X.You can also play mobile or online games to earn bitcoins.
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