Is Bitcoin a Currency? 🤔

Broxus
Broxus
Published in
3 min readMar 27, 2020

Bitcoin is of genuine interest to the whole world since, among all investment instruments, it stands out as an opportunity to receive from tens to thousands of percent of the profitability in a short period. However, Bitcoin was not conceived as a tool for speculation, but as a revolutionary way to change an outdated financial system. Here we will try to describe briefly what this phenomenon is and for what purpose it was invented.

đź’­ What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency and the network of the same name in which it operates. These are electronic coins that can be sent by the Internet directly from one person to another without contacting any bank or payment provider.

In essence, bitcoin is a separate monetary system. Therefore, the commission for transfers in Bitcoin is so low: it is not appointed by someone but depends only on the network load.

đź’­ Is Bitcoin a currency?

Yes and no. The governments of many countries still do not recognize bitcoin as a currency, since this money is not issued by any of the states, and therefore does not have any security. Also, bitcoin does not have any physical form, such as coins and banknotes — it exists only in the form of software code.

Nevertheless, bitcoin has specific characteristics of a currency — this money can be paid in many places and is freely convertible, i.e., it can be exchanged for other currencies.

Unlike fiat money, such as the dollar, euro, and yuan, BTC exchange rate is extremely volatile. Despite this, from a historical perspective, it is continually growing, and long-term storage of bitcoin brings its owners incomes of hundreds percent or more.

đź’­ When, where, and why did Bitcoin appear?

The creator of Bitcoin is Satoshi Nakamoto. It is still unknown whether he is a real person or a group of people under this pseudonym: Bitcoin’s creator did not ever show his face or appeared in public. The first record describing the Bitcoin protocol was posted on the Internet on January 3, 2009, at the height of the most massive global financial crisis.

The banking sector at that time was in decline, many banks went bankrupt, and their customers lost their savings. Satoshi proposed removing intermediaries from the money flow chain, returning the right of managing the money to their owners, describing Bitcoin as “a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.”

đź’­ How does Bitcoin work?

The Bitcoin network is decentralized. There is no one to control it except a mathematical algorithm. Bitcoin, like other cryptocurrencies, works based on blockchain technology. Blockchain is a way of recording information in the public ledger in the blocks that cannot be changed.

Bitcoin network security is provided by miners who receive rewards from the network for checking transactions. They perform a dual function — preventing double spending of funds and creating new coins. The transactions verified by the miners go to the public ledger.

Bitcoins can be bought or sold for other currencies using specialized services and exchanges, as well as directly from one user to another. Bitcoins are stored in a digital wallet on a user’s computer or smartphone. Transferring bitcoin is as easy as sending an email.

đź’­ What is the easiest way to buy bitcoin?

The fastest way to purchase bitcoin is to use the Broxus Bot service. This is an entirely legal service working in the form of a chat in the Telegram messenger. All you need to do is launch the bot and follow the menu prompts. The purchase is completed within a few minutes, and the delivery time depends only on the speed of the Bitcoin network. Try it now and join the bitcoin economy if you haven’t done it yet!

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Broxus
Broxus
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