Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are in greater demand than ever.
But what exactly is Bitcoin, how safe is the artificial currency and where does the hype come from.
The most important questions and answers
The concept of Bitocin was first made known in a working paper in 2008.
The first bitcoin was traded on January 12, 2009.
The first bitcoins were worth around $ 0.08 in 2009.
Munich - Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are currently on everyone's lips.
On Tuesday (February 16), the cryptocurrency first reached a value of over 50,000 US dollars per unit.
The Internet currency, which has often been declared dead, has once again exceeded all expectations.
Here you can find out the most important facts about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
What actually is a Bitcoin?
The first concept paper of the mother of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, was published in 2008. The identity of the author and Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto is still unknown to the public.
The name is a pseudonym that the Bitcoin founder used in various forums.
The first Bitcoin transaction took place on January 12, 2009.
At that time, Satoshi sent ten bitcoins to developer Hal Finney.
Satoshi continued working on Bitcoin until 2010, when he handed the project over to lead developer Gavin Andresen.
To date, it has not been possible to clarify who the Bitcoin inventor is.
Basically, Bitcoin is a digital currency.
Unlike state currencies such as the euro or US dollar, the currency is not available in physical form.
Another important difference and the main reason for the success of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that there is no central authority, such as a central bank, that controls Bitcoin.
The currency can therefore be freely traded from person to person without the influence of banks or other financial institutions.
That is why Bitcoin is called a decentralized system.
Another big difference to state currencies is that the number of bitcoins is limited.
While a central bank can theoretically print as many banknotes as it wants, the number of Bitcoins is capped at 21 million.
What is a blockchain?
The blockchain is the decentralized network on which the Bitcoin is built.
The term blockchain can be translated into German as “linked list”.
The blockchain can be compared to a register or general ledger.
In it, information is transmitted in a forgery-proof manner with the help of a decentralized database used by many users.
Accordingly, blockchains are secure, up-to-date directories in which digital transactions and their participants are documented in a way that is understandable and transparent for everyone.
The information on the respective transaction is then not stored on a server, but in a network of different computers.
This makes the blockchain particularly secure against hacker attacks.
Although the blockchain has its origins in Bitcoin, the idea is now also being further developed by large companies such as IBM and SAP.
How are bitcoins created?
The process of creating a bitcoin is known as mining.
In Bitcoin mining, individual computers make their computing power available for processing transactions.
The computing power is required to solve complex mathematical tasks.
Once the tasks are solved, new blockchain blocks are created.
Since these are complex calculations and this increases with the number of blocks, there are costs for the miners.
As a reward, the miners receive Bitcoin.
The more blocks the miners dig, the less reward they get.
Because fewer and fewer Bitcoins are being spent on miners, prices will rise while demand remains the same.
The situation is similar with raw materials such as precious metals or crude oil.
Where can I pay with Bitcoin?
The options for paying with Bitcoin are still limited, but they are growing steadily.
In addition to Wikipedia, Mozilla and Greenpeace, Tesla also wants to offer Bitcoin as a payment method in the future.
The leading credit card providers Mastercard and Visa also want to integrate cryptocurrencies into their payment systems this year.
Still, Bitcoin is an exception among cryptocurrencies.
Other cryptocurrencies such as Etherum and Ripple are rarely used as payment methods.
How can I pay with Bitcoins?
In order to pay with bitcoins, you first need bitcoins, which can be purchased on crypto exchanges such as Coinbase or Binance with euros, dollars or other currencies.
These bitcoins are kept in a digital coin wallet.
In order to be able to pay with Bitcoins, the buyer needs the address of the recipient.
Each of the transactions is encrypted and stored in the blockchain by the miners.
Payments with Bitcoin are mostly processed via service providers such as BitPay.
What are the main criticisms of Bitcoin?
In addition to the high energy requirement, Bitcoin is repeatedly criticized.
Lately in particular, cryptocurrencies are often referred to as pure speculative business and high risk due to the sharp fall in prices.
Since the market is not regulated and controlled, a total loss is possible.
Another common criticism is that bitcoin is increasingly being used by criminals as a convenient anonymous payment method.
Since the payment is anonymous, it is almost impossible to convict those responsible this way.
The Federal Association of the Digital Economy, for example, criticizes the fact that the lack of state control encourages illegal activities such as money laundering and tax evasion.
The immense energy consumption that arises when mining Bitcoins and other crypto currencies is also causing growing criticism.
A study by the University of Cambridge comes to the conclusion that Bitcoin alone consumes as much electricity as the Netherlands.
Since more and more sophisticated computer systems are required for the ever more complex computing tasks, the energy requirement increases continuously.
In addition, the chance of generating a Bitcoin increases if the miner has particularly high computing power available.
65 percent of the miners are based in China, followed by the USA and Russia.
Countries with particularly low electricity prices, such as Georgia, are also popular.
(
phf
)
* Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital network