Roads to Bitcoin

Bitcoin! Now that is a word that you've probably heard of before. Something someone once said on the news. Maybe something your friend talked to you about. It's been used as a "bad" word by and many who want it to fail but it has been doing the opposite. It's growing and slowly the network security is moving and adapting through the unknown and highly disruptive environment.

Well, China banned it! It must be bad!

It's a Ponzi scheme!

It's a bubble and it's going to burst!

Someone is going to create another better Bitcoin!

So, let's break it down and let's go to the very important question that many want to understand. What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin vs bitcoin

Bitcoin is the entire Bitcoin network and protocol. It's everything that is happening on the network and being built on top of it. The currency people talk about is referred to as bitcoin. This is how people on the Bitcoin network send their bitcoin to anyone at anytime.

Bitcoin is a permission less peer to peer technology that allows transactions without relying on an traditional intermediary. You are able to send bitcoin anywhere in the world without a bank and set fee limits to desired amount which will give miners a fee for completing them. Miners do not discriminate versus any party and transactions are kept in line though decentralized nodes which validate the blocks in history and present. It's a security system that keeps everyone in line from frontrunning and attempting to cheat and manipulate the system and allowing the most decentralized system in the world to exist and operate fairly.

Why would I buy bitcoin? Well this question will be answered differently for people around the world. It's a mechanism to store value over time and it's effective. Now as someone who also may have stock markets available this may change how someone appropriates their savings but in terms of global markets many don't have the same forms of storing their money in assets let alone a fiat currency that rapidly depreciates each year and the buying power is lost over time. Think about the cost of your college when you went to the cost of what it will be to put your children though it. Saving in fiat currencies doesn't offset the rising prices and often sets people further from their goals.

For others it's a form of currency that they may easily take over the border and transact with people in. While there is volatility in bitcoin there is seamless process of transacting with those around you. You don't need to worry about converting your local currency when you leave Nigeria to Cameroon and pay fees and than convert it back again. While the volatility can move daily and it can cause shorter term loss in buying power or gain in buying power but you still have the same amount of satoshi (units of bitcoin). In fiat transactions you would be losing fractions of a $100 exchange to €"x" Euros. The exchange back from Euros to USD would once again cost you a lost in dollars. While these might not be things you worry about but there are different use cases for those who transact in bitcoin globally.

The scarce nature of mining for 21 million bitcoin means there will never be more created. In 1 bitcoin there are 100,000,000 satoshi. This creation is equal and on average 10 minute block times allow for the same amount of bitcoin get created regardless if more miners are introduced. The most efficient ones are rewarded while the inefficient ones may become obsolete. The decentralized aspect of having a global network of nodes means that nobody controls Bitcoin and it holds those accountable who attempt to change the network in their personal interest. So, if the big bad wolf came in and wanted to create 42 million bitcoin he would not be allowed to change the protocol.

Where can I get some bitcoin? You can get it on exchanges. I would only recommend those like Swan Bitcoin and Strike in the USA. You can also exchange goods or services for bitcoin. As more people have adapted and moved into bitcoin there are more and more on ramps to obtaining bitcoin. This technology is still in its youth stages as it's only just over a decade old. The main concern for most is how speculative it still is in it's stage of development.