Bitcoin Brokers

About Bitcoin

During 2009, a white paper was published online, in which a peer-to-peer payment system was described which should be able to operate in a fully devolved way. The author of the white paper calls himself Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym to which the creator of the white paper has since remained anonymous.

What is Bitcoin?

With the increase in the number of online transactions and the growing distrust of banks after the 2008 financial crisis, the demand for a new digital payment system is growing.

This system should be able to exist alongside the current financial system and, above all, the system must be decentralised so that it does not have a single point of failure.

Bitcoin is the solution in the search for a new digital payment method. You could think of it as a digital form of cash: it allows you to exchange value directly from one person to another, without the need for a third party. This is called peer-to-peer.

About Blockchain

The technology behind Bitcoin is called blockchain technology. This technology makes it possible to transfer value digitally. A blockchain is a chain that contains transaction data in chronological order, which cannot be changed later.

With Bitcoin, every ten minutes of new transactions are collected in one block. This block is then added to the chain, which forms a block chain: the blockchain.

The blockchain is a kind of database. The power of the blockchain lies in its decentralisation. This means that there are thousands of computers worldwide that have a copy of the complete bitcoin transaction history.

Using these copies, computers check whether the new transactions are legitimate. In addition, the system makes it impossible to dismantle the network. To do this, we would have to destroy all of these thousands of copies worldwide.

A computer that stores all transaction history is called a node. When a node has validated the legitimacy of transactions, minors collect them. They collect new transactions, put them in a block and add that block to the chain. Miners are also computers, but not ordinary computers.

They are often designed specifically to mine bitcoins and do nothing else. They mine them by solving an extremely difficult mathematical puzzle. It takes a lot of computing power, and they compete with other miners who are trying to solve the puzzle. The computer that solves the puzzle the fastest, and adds its block to the chain, receives 12.5 new bitcoins!

What Can You Do With Bitcoin?

Bitcoin payment method was developed as a fast virtual currency. With it, you can transfer value directly without the need for a trusted third party. There are already a large number of merchants and retailers who accept it as a payment method all over the world.

Fast Transactions

Using a bank to transfer money (internationally) often results in high commissions, a wait of several days before payment is processed, and is subject to further delays during weekends and weekends. holidays. If you are using bitcoin for such a transaction, it would only take a few minutes and would cost considerably less.

Investment

Many people believe that it is the currency of the future. It exists in a fixed quantity, so that when the demand for it increases, it creates scarcity. This results in an increase in the price and, in turn, this creates a lot of speculation on its price. Would you like to invest in bitcoin? Only do this with an amount you can afford to lose, that way you limit the risk.

How to Get Bitcoin?

Basically, there are four ways to get bitcoin:

► Buy through a broker or an exchange

► Accept it as payment for your goods or services

► Receive (part of) your salary in it

► Start bitcoin mining

Buying Bitcoin

You can send and receive it without intermediaries. If you want to exchange euros for the currency, you can use a cryptocurrency broker. You can pay by bank transfer or by payment card, the cryptos will then be sent to your wallet.

Accept Bitcoin

There are currently an abundance of stores (online) where you can use the cryptocurrency to pay for goods or services. Examples of retailers that accept the currency are Expedia, where you can book a hotel using it, and Overstock.

Bitcoin

Employees have received part of their salary in bitcoin. Employees choose the amount of their salary they want to receive in cryptocurrency. At the end of the month, the employer buys the currencies at current prices and sends them to the employees’ digital wallets. You could also ask your employer or employee if they would like this service!

Bitcoin Mining

Use the computing power of your computer to solve mathematical puzzles and secure the network. Every ten minutes or so, a new block is mined, containing the latest transactions. This block is then added to the block chain. When this happens, the miner receives a reward of 12.5 bitcoins. The reward for minors will be halved every four years and will continue until 2140; by this point, all 21 million bitcoins will have been mined.

Until a few years ago, an ordinary laptop would have been enough to connect to the mining network, but no need to bother you now, as today’s miners are specially designed machines that cost a lot and have a lot of computing power.

Summary

Cryptocurrency is designed as a digital payment system that allows peer-to-peer payments. Transactions are verified and executed by a decentralised computer network. This network is made up of miners and nodes.

You can get bitcoins in several ways: by accepting them as payment for your goods or services, by mining them, or by receiving them as (part of) salary. But most users simply choose to buy them.