What is Bitcoin? Created in January 2009, Bitcoin is now the
most popular digital currency – or cryptocurrency – in the world. It has no physical presence – there are no
Bitcoin bills or coins. All Bitcoin transactions happen online. Regular currencies are controlled by the government,
but Bitcoin is a decentralized currency; which means it is not controlled by a central authority. Satoshi Nakamoto is the mysterious name associated
with Bitcoin creation but nobody knows for sure who created Bitcoin. If there are no physical bills or coins, how
can you use Bitcoin? All Bitcoin transactions happen over the internet,
so there is no need for physical bills and coins. People can transfer Bitcoins directly to each
other's digital wallet without the need to go through a bank. However, people usually don’t use Bitcoin
to pay for things. They use it mainly as an investment with an
intent of making a profit. How are Bitcoins created? New Bitcoins are added by a process called
mining.
This process is complicated, but in simple
terms Bitcoin mining is when computers solve mathematical equations, and as a reward they
get Bitcoins. But, since so many people are trying to mine
Bitcoins, it has become very difficult to mine a sizable amount of it. How can I get Bitcoins? The most popular way is to buy Bitcoins online
at a Bitcoin exchange. But there are other ways to get bitcoins – buying
them at special retail locations and Bitcoin ATMs, mining them, or earning them by playing
some online games, completing tasks on websites that offer Bitcoins as a reward, etc.
How much is one Bitcoin worth? Bitcoin is a very volatile currency, with
wild price fluctuations. In just the first 2 weeks of 2021, one Bitcoin’s
value ranged between $29,000 and $41,000! But you don’t need to buy a whole Bitcoin. Each Bitcoin is made up of 100 million Satoshis,
the smallest part of a bitcoin. So you can buy a fraction of a bitcoin depending
on how much money you want to spend. Is Bitcoin a good investment? Since Bitcoin is a very volatile currency,
there is a huge risk involved with trading Bitcoins. For example, in November 2017, one Bitcoin
was worth around $5,800. In December of the same year, its price skyrocketed
to almost $20,000.
But just a few months later, Bitcoin was back
down to around $6,900. Because of these huge price fluctuations,
Bitcoin is probably not the best investment for individual investors..
