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What Is Bitcoin? How Can I Earn Bitcoins?What is Bitcoin?Bitcoin is a new currency. Unlike the dollar, pound or euro, it is not owned by any Government. The number of Bitcoins that will ever exist is fixed at 21 million. The value of Bitcoins should rise over time if more and more people begin to use them. What can I use Bitcoins for?You can spend Bitcoins at a limited number of places at the moment. If fewer people accept Bitcoin in the future, the value of Bitcoins is likely to fall. But if Bitcoins become widely accepted the value could rise significantly. Whereas dollars are divided into 100 cents, a Bitcoin can be divided into a hundred million pieces, so if something costs 0.00351 Bitcoins (BTC) that's no problem. It's easy to send Bitcoins to other people anywhere in the world, free or at very low cost. Where are my Bitcoins stored?Your Bitcoins are stored electronically, e.g. on your laptop. If you lose the file you lose your Bitcoins, so you need to back the file up regularly. It's just like having a wallet full of notes - except you can't back up your wallet. You need to install some software which sets up your electronic wallet. This software is very clever: it ensures your Bitcoins don't appear anywhere else and, for example, you can't spend the same Bitcoin twice. You can download the software from here. If you install Bitcoin-Qt it will synchronise your installation with other Bitcoin installations which can take 24 hours of continuous running. The process can be stopped and restarted. You can also store Bitcoins online, e.g. with bitcoin.de. How much are Bitcoins worth?Bitcoin first reached $100 on 1st April 2013 at 14.00GMT. And $350 on 8th Nov at 14.35; $500 on 17th Nov at 12.45. Bitcoin first got to $1000 on 27th November 2013 at 14.50GMT but quickly sank back below that level, and didn't exceed $1000 again until January 1st 2017. The current value of Bitcoin can be found here and a chart of the Bitcoin's past value here. Bitcoin's value can fluctuate wildly at times. Where can I buy Bitcoins? Can I get Bitcoins free?There are sites that will pay you, in Bitcoins, for doing tasks, visiting websites and viewing videos. The best two are Bitcoin Get and Free Digital Money. You can buy Bitcoins in much the same way as you can buy any other currency. For example you can buy and sell Bitcoins here. Which Ad Networks Pay in Bitcoin?You can earn Bitcoins by hosting ads on your website or blog.
However, very few ad networks offer this, the best being
Anonymous Ads.
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Will Bitcoin Ever Have Mass Appeal?
Bitcoin was started in 2009 by a person or persons going under the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
Initially it was an underground, even subversive currency known only to computer nerds, people wanting
to buy stuff from underground websites and suchlike.
Max Keiser, an economist and polemicist, did much to publicise Bitcoin via his "Keiser Report" programme on
Russia Today TV.
Gradually Bitcoin began to emerge from this subfusc nether world and in 2013 started to be mentioned
in mainstream media.
2013 also saw the emergence of organisations dedicated to building infrastructure that would allow Bitcoin to be used
more widely.
For example, it has not always been easy to trade Bitcoins.
The Mt.Gox exchange, based in Japan, initially had an uneasy relationship with regulators and was reputedly sometimes slow to pay out.
Bitcoin.de felt solid but dealt in Euros not GBP.
In 2014 new exchanges are beginning to emerge. One such is Coinfloor, a UK-regulated operation designed from the ground up
as a proper exchange.
Just one example of how the Bitcoin world is beginning to be populated by business people and people with a background
in financial trading, rather than geeks, hackers and enthusiasts.
Bitcoin has major shortcomings that prevent its mass adoption. Chief among these is the risk of total loss:
if you lose your softcopy Bitcoin wallet, or you lose the password to your online wallet, you lose all your Bitcoins.
Let alone the risk of total loss due to Bitcoins becoming worthless.
The second barrier to everyday adoption is mathematics. Most people cannot cope with more than two decimal places.
If something costs $29.35 that's fine, but if something costs 0.001325 that confuses the hell out of people.
It takes mental gyrations, of with many people are incapable, to work out how much 0.001325 actually is.
And it's all too easy to overpay 10-fold when the price is 0.0002BTC.
Until a new unit is universally adopted (e.g. 1/1000 BTC) such that prices are shown in a familiar format
such as 29.35 tB, Bitcoin will never be used by the masses.
(Or, eventually, perhaps the unit will be 1/1,000,000 BTC: mB.
The opposite of the Weimar Republic, Bitcoin is suffering hyper deflation.
Using Greek letters, as currently happens, to denote subdivisions only serves to re-affirm Bitcoin's nerdy status.)
Thirdly, no major retailers accepted Bitcoin. When Amazon or PayPal accept Bitcoin then
it really will begin to take off.
However, it will not be until banks offer Bitcoin-denominated accounts that Bitcoin will have truly mass appeal
(short of the world succumbing to Bitcoin Mania of course). This virtually eliminates the risk of accidental loss, signifies mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin and
gives the masses confidence (rightly or wrongly) that Bitcoin is not going to become worthless overnight.
But even if that never happens Bitcoin may nevertheless still prosper as an alternative investment
(a sort of electronic gold); as currency for a computer-savvy minority and as a niche money transfer mechanism.
On what date did bitcoin get to $100?
When did bitcoin first reach $100?
When did Bitcoin reach $500?
When did bitcoin first hit $1000?
When did Bitcoin first get to $1000?
When did Bitcoin reach $1000?
When did Bitcoin hit $5000?
When did Bitcoin get to $10000?
When did Bitcoin start?
Bitcoin hit $350 at 14.35GMT on November 8th 2013.
Bitcoin first hit $500 at 12.45GMT on November 17th 2013,