Bitcoins

What are bitcoins?

Bitcoins are a type of virtual currency brought to life by the Internet and the willingness of lot of people looking to embrace new forms of monetary exchange Introduced as open source software software in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto

It is a cryptocurrency

What are bitcoins?

Completely decentralized form of money Bitcoins can be used for all sorts of real transactions By skipping the middle man in the transaction you pay far less in the associated fees

Commercial use of bitcoin, illicit or otherwise, is currently small compared to its use by speculators, which has fueled price volatility

How does it work?

Advantages
Payment freedom All necessary information is public and transparent Fewer risks for merchants No transaction cost involved Its super liquid The ultimate in portability

Criticism
Degree of acceptance Volatility No regulation Money laundering Cyber security risks Example: Theft and unauthorized mining Legal issues and status

Global News
12 Jan 2009: The first Bitcoin transaction occurs, as Nakamoto to send some bitcoins to Finney
13 Jun 2010: A Bitcoin user claims that hackers stole 25,000 bitcoins from him, worth around $500,000 at the time. Those bitcoins would be worth around $20 million today. The incident raises awareness of the security risks associated with holding bitcoins. 7 Jan2013: Bit Pay, a startup that helps merchants accept bitcoins, raises $510,000 It is one of the first Bitcoin startups to raise significant investment capital. It will raise another $2 million in May.

Contd..
29 Nov. 2013: Bitcoin's price hits an all-time high of $1,242. 12 Dec. 2013: The Bitcoin startup Coinbase raises $25 million the largest sum to date. 17 Dec 2013: Europe's First Permanent Bitcoin ATM Installed in Helsinki. 18 Dec 2013: Digital cryptocurrency has lost almost 50% of its value overnight after BTC China said it could no longer accept deposits in the Chinese currency. 20 Dec 2013: Overstock.com will become the first major U.S. retailer to accept Bitcoin

Contd..
1 Jan 2014: RBI, recently issued a warning to the general public against the use of virtual currencies (VCs) including Bitcoins 5 Jan 2014: Bitcoins use by tea trade brought to notice of Ministry board 6 Jan 2014: The value of Bitcoin has topped $1,000 (610) again after social gaming firm Zynga said it would start accepting the virtual currency as a payment option Chinese giant Alibaba bans Bitcoins Taiwanese, Indian, German regulators issue warning against use of Bitcoin Jan 8 2014: Yahoo Malware Turned European Computers Into Bitcoin Slaves

Food for Thought

It (Bitcoin currency) has to have intrinsic value. You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of BitCoin is, I havent been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can. - Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve