Bitcoin is a digital asset developed in 2009 by someone under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. This digital asset is like gold, but is only available in the digital world. The concept might sound like eGold, even though it's actually a lot different.
Bitcoin as a digital asset has the following features:
Instant transfer in peer to peer.
- Peer-to-peer itself means that Bitcoin runs without having a central server. The storage server is decentralized and distributed — divided into various servers that are run by each user connected to the network.
Transfer anywhere
- Unlike gold, Bitcoin can be sent anywhere in seconds, whenever and wherever you want. Delivery with Bitcoin can occur only with the capital of a smartphone and internet connection.
The transfer fee is very small.
- Shipping costs can be removed for free, but to speed up transactions, your Bitcoin wallet will usually cut the cost of around 500 - 3,000 rupiah, no matter how much bitcoin is sent.
Transactions are irreversible, meaning that once transferred cannot be canceled.
Bitcoin is given to someone else, the transaction cannot be canceled unless the person is willing to send the Bitcoin again;
Bitcoin transactions are pseudonymous.
- All transactions that have been carried out at the same time the Bitcoin balance owned by someone can be seen, but we do not know who the owner of the Bitcoin address is if the owner does not tell him. Every Bitcoin user can actually choose whether his name wants to appear or not, but even if the user wants to keep his identity confidential, all transactions remain recorded and can be monitored by the public.
Bitcoin is not controlled by any institution or government.
- Bitcoins that use the Blockchain database are not controlled by a party, but are very open to the public, making it impossible for someone to fake transactions on the Blockchain. All transactions are recorded in live, transparent, and distributed to millions of servers. Those who want to change or falsify Bitcoin transaction data, must hack millions of servers at the same time.
The number is limited
- Supply of Bitcoin will only have 21 million Bitcoin worldwide. Bitcoin creation system that continues to decrease every 4 years resembles an economic system based on deflation and with the increasingly limited supply of bitcoin, bitcoin prices tend to rise.
You can transfer bitcoin anywhere in the world as long as it's connected to the internet. Bitcoin will be saved into Bitcoin Wallet. This wallet must be installed on both sides, it can be with a PC / laptop, tablet or smartphone. After installing the wallet, you will get Bitcoin Address. To transfer bitcoin is very easy, open the wallet application, enter the Bitcoin Address from the opponent's transaction and the amount of bitcoin you want to transfer, then send.
Then you might ask, if there are no banks or companies that manage like paypal or egold, where is the financial data stored? The answer is on your own computer (in the wallet) and peer to peer networks around the world. Bitcoin is stored on your computer in the wallet. If the computer is damaged, your bitcoin will be lost, so the bitcoin wallet must be backed up regularly to several devices. When making transactions, tens of thousands of computers in the bitcoin network will verify the data you input so that no fraud occurs.
Why do people start to buy and use bitcoin?
Bitcoin is developed with the idealism that digital assets are either not controlled by the government or the central bank. The financial crisis some time ago confirmed that the government was always negligent in maintaining economic stability. The government is believed to be always controlled by corrupt people and only works for personal gain, so that financial decisions always side with mere conglomerates.
This concept is interesting for many people, especially geek in the IT world. They began to invest their assets in the form of bitcoin, while the world economy became more volatile as evidenced by the American and European banking crises. Bitcoin is believed to be a digital asset and universal commodity so prices will continue to soar. Evidently, see in January 2013, 1 BTC (bitcoin unit) was traded at a price range of 13 USD. Whereas in May 2013, 1 BTC was appreciated with a value of 120 USD, this means that in 5 months the value of bitcoin has soared almost 10 times. Then in December 2013, 1 BTC was appreciated with a value of 860 USD. This means that bitcoin has soared 66 times in 1 year. If 2 years ago (beginning of 2011) you idly bought bitcoin for 0.3 USD, I congratulated you for being a millionaire.
Bitcoin also has two very interesting features, namely its anonymous nature and very low transaction costs (almost 0). You can make transactions without giving an identity at all, this can keep your privacy to the highest level.
Who issues Bitcoin?
New Bitcoin is created with a process called "mining". Miners use sophisticated computers to decipher complex mathematics to find new blocks of Bitcoin, as the prize the inventor will be rewarded with a number of bitcoins. Prizes per 1 block found initially were 50 BTC, now 25 BTC / block, then it will continue to decrease accompanied by added circulation of Bitcoin. The system has ensured that the maximum bitcoin circulating in the world is 21 million BTC so there will be no inflation.
Is Bitcoin Safe?
You might think that an open source bitcoin system allows a genius computer to break into the bitcoin system and publish a number of bitcoins for itself. In fact, this system has been reviewed by various groups as flawless. Every past transaction data is stored in all peers throughout the network, and must be sequential. Each new transaction will be verified by a number of new peers declared valid.
Bitcoin system is safe, unsecured users and money exchangers. Just like internet banking passwords, hackers can easily steal some money from you if the computer has a virus.
How to get Bitcoin?
You can get bitcoin by buying and mining. To buy bitcoin can be done on exchangers such as indodax.com (indonesia), mtgox (US & Japan), and btcchina.com (China).
Will buying Bitcoin be profitable?
This question is like what stock questions to buy tomorrow. No one can be sure. But if I look at the development of media that covers the cause of enthusiasm for bitcoin everywhere it will create very high demand. I believe prices will continue to soar many times, I myself start investing some money into bitcoin. But of course I am not responsible for any losses that would be experienced by the reader. The capitalization value of bitcoin is now around 1.3 billion USD or around 13 trillion IDR 11 billion USD or 130 trillion IDR (updated December 14, 2013), even though this is still the beginning of many people who do not know Bitcoin.
Please learn more about Bitcoin:
Intro: http://bitcoin.org/en/
Video: https://www.weusecoins.com/en/
Wiki: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade