40 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Bitcoin | Amazing Facts 4U
- The integration of the internet into our daily lives has allowed the financial world to evolve. In addition to banking new online currencies called cryptocurrencies have evolved.
- Bitcoin is the first digital cryptocurrency, a form of currency without notes and coins. It is a decentralized currency that is traded solely on computers and the internet.
- All bitcoin transactions are handled through what is called the blockchain which is a database containing a record of every Bitcoin transaction ever. To store and use Bitcoins on a server, it must contain a copy of the blockchain. The integrity and the chronological order of the blockchain are enforced with military-grade cryptography, thus the label crypto-currency.
- The amazing fact is that Bitcoin and bitcoin are not the same. Bitcoin with a capital ‘B’ is used when referring to the network, while the currency is spelled with a small ‘b’.
- Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym of the person who invented bitcoin in 2008. He communicated with the first users by email never by phone or in person. He is said to be from Japan but his mail ID was from Germany and the bitcoin software was not available in Japanese.
- Amazingly Satoshi Nakamoto has continued to remain in the shadows in spite of the spectacular rise of bitcoins and disappeared completely in 2011. The true identity of him is still not known. It is believed that Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1 million bitcoins.
- The computer software source code for bitcoins is about 31000 lines long.
- The first bitcoin transaction occurred in January 2009. Bitcoin has encryptions to maintain security and validity and has a real value that can be exchanged for any other physical currency online. It has risen in popularity and strength over the years.
- Unlike regular money, each bitcoin has a detailed history that is hard to duplicate or fake.
- It took 5 years for bitcoin value to rise from 0 to $1000 which was followed by about 30% erosion of value. In November 2013, it was briefly valued more than gold.
- Bitcoin has a history of very high volatility. It was valued at just 4 Cents in early 2010, one year after its launch. It was valued at $7 in August 2011 soaring to an all-time high of $1250 in November 2013.
- No single entity can control this currency. In fact, the value is controlled by everyone who uses bitcoin as the software used for this currency logs and validates who log and validates activities of the bitcoins across the globe. Everything regarding Bitcoins including detailed reports of the operations is also available. The information is not controlled by anyone.
- There is a finite number of bitcoins. Over the years the number of bitcoins will increase but at a reduced rate. At the present number of bitcoins are under 16 million which would reach a final figure of 21 million bitcoins only in 2140.
- Presently bitcoins are created at a fixed rate. Obviously, it doesn’t get devalued like fiat currencies as it can’t be arbitrarily generated.
- The amazing fact is that bitcoins have no inherent or set value. The more popular bitcoin gets; the more value is going to be placed on each individual bitcoin.
- Amazingly you can see all transactions of bitcoin. It is completely transparent showing no personal data but transactions and amounts. Everything is able to be seen on the blockchain and it’s this complete openness that gives a lot of trust and security.
- Bitcoins are generated by mining. Mining bitcoins means you are using a computer program to solve mathematical problems to verify various transactions around the world. Bitcoin miners then get paid a certain number of bitcoins for solving those problems. Mining is very hardware intensive.
- Every 10 minutes, 25 Bitcoins are generated by the network. Every miner or mining pool is competing to find those 25 coins (3600 per day). Every 4 years this number would halve.
- It is believed that about 20000 advanced computers are engaged in bitcoin mining.
- One of the most integral features of bitcoins is that you can never be forced to pay, nor can you take back a transaction. You cannot revoke any transaction.
- The amazing fact is that there is no trace back to you as your transaction is anonymous and that is the main reason why some countries are banning and prohibiting the use of it. you don’t need to provide any of your personal details like your name, address, email, phone number, etc., unlike PayPal transactions. You can pay for anything with Bitcoin and remain completely anonymous.
- China has banned bitcoin transactions in December 2013.
- Unlike traditional banking methods, you can send money with little to no fees using bitcoin. With bitcoins, there are little to no transaction fees, and the money is transferred instantly.
- Bitcoins are held in digital wallets and you can see your balance online. However, if you lose unique keys to this wallet, bitcoins are lost forever. However, nobody can steal bitcoin from your wallet. Amazingly you don’t have to pay any annual fees to keep the wallet. You can have as many wallets and bitcoin addresses as you like.
- You can also have a physical wallet the same way there is a digital Bitcoin which holds a piece of digital information on paper that can be stored in a safe space.
- With increasing use, you can really buy things with bitcoins as it is evolving into real currency. A variety of merchants have started accepting bitcoins as payment for items, both online stores, and physical stores.
- Bitcoin Computes More Than 100,000 Transactions a Day. The number has been growing at an exponential rate.
- Bitcoin (BTC) is divisible to one million bits i.e. decimal places 0.00000001 which is equivalent to one “Satoshi”. The smallest denomination viable for a transaction is 5,430 satoshis.
- When the US federal government raided and shut down the first online drug illegal marketplace, Silk Road, it also seized bitcoins to the tune of $28.5 million or almost 1.5 percent of the world’s bitcoin mine at that time. It is now auctioning them off to put them back in circulation without flooding the market and crashing their value.
- In Newport, Wales, in July 2013, a man named James Howell threw away his old hard drive in a Welsh landfill, without realizing that it also held his digital wallet with 7,500 bitcoins which he had mined in 2009 when bitcoins were limited. By the time he discovered his mistake in November 2013, the value of those bitcoins had soared to $7.5 million then and it was lost forever.
- Norwegian Kristoffer Koch invested $28 in bitcoin in 2009 and forgot about it. When he remembered this in 2013, it was worth about $8,25,000.
- When Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer paid a fellow bitcoin user 10,000 bitcoins (roughly $25 then) for two Papa John’s pizzas on May 22, 2010, little did he know that it would be worth millions today. Since then, May 22 is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day to celebrate the most expensive pizzas in history.
- It has been observed that almost 65 percent of bitcoins in the world are mined or bought and stored being inactive wallets. The regular transactions that keep the bitcoins network working are only happening on the remaining 35 percent that uses it like a currency rather than a commodity.
- The amazing fact is that Bitcoin is designed in such a way that pooling 51 percent of the bitcoin network gives you control which can wreak havoc with the bitcoins but this is most unlikely to happen.
- Currently, about ten people /organizations hold roughly 20% of all Bitcoins.
- Mt Gox was a company that was handling almost 70% of all the transactions based on Bitcoin, and at the time of the crash in February 2014 due to theft by hackers, it was holding over 850,000 Bitcoins worth billions. Since Bitcoin is untraceable, they only managed to retrieve 200,000 Bitcoins.
- Argentina has seen massive bitcoin transactions recently as its currency has crashed and people have lost faith in it.
- WikiLeaks turned to bitcoins for donations as the leading money transfer companies refused to deal with it.
- Lamborghini became the first car company to accept payment in bitcoins.
- The Canadian city, Vancouver became the first city to install bitcoin cash machines.
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