In the last couple of years, Bitcoin or BTC has proved to be an interesting substitute to paper currency. This digital currency was introduced in 2009 using, which money can be transferred with the help of computers, Smartphones and other similar devices without the need of involving any financial institution.
Some of the major benefits of Bitcoin over the traditional modes of payment are listed below:
- The Bitcoins you posses are not easy to be confiscated or frozen like in the case of bank accounts. It is a very secure means as you save your Bitcoins on your computer.
- The best part is that this kind of currency has almost zero counter-party risk.
- Also, it lets you make anonymous online payments, which is not in the purview of governments. It can’t be regulated as it works on a decentralized network.
- Mostly, no charges are levied on sending or receiving the Bitcoins so you save on the middlemen payment processors
- It is quick and can be used to transfer money worldwide instantaneously.
With the help of the Bitcoin wallet you can get your Bitcions. The Bitcoin wallet is basically a program that enables you to keep a tab on the Bitcoins you have. You can get it for any kind of operating system for Android devices or you could also choose to use a hosted site. However, be careful as this wallet has extremely sensitive data or else you could end up losing all your Bitcoins forever. Through the internet the transaction will be submitted and once it has been confirmed by a number of people the amount/coins will be sent to you. But the question you might have is that how would you exchange different currencies with Bitcions. Well, there are a number of exchanges on the internet such as Mt. Gox, PayPal, etc. apart from this, some informal places have also come up to exchange bitcoins.
Then, there is something called as mining process that run a program known as a mine to verify transactions on the network. This program confirms people’s transactions by processing some meticulous calculations. When such verifications are done there are high chances of getting free money. So, if a miner finds a new block of Bitcoins , which they get to keep. Also, when someone else transfers Bitcoins she may charge a “transaction fee”, which goes to a miner. However, the problem is that it is relatively quite difficult to find Bitcoins as many other people do the same. To encounter this, these people join a mining pool, wherein if any Bitcoin is found it would be shared amongst them. There are also individuals who have customized computers to do Bitcoin mining on a large scale, and there are hardware lists, using which you learn how to get the most for your currency.
These Bitcoins can be used to buy anything such clothes, books, food, any kind of services and so on. They can also be used to do currency trade (forex) all said and done Bitcoin might be the easiest thing to use. But if you want to buy things online and are hesitant to use PayPal or your credit card then Bitcoins prove to be a great alternative.