A Brief Overview Of: Bitcoin
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first implementation of a concept called "cryptocurrency", which was described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list, suggesting the idea of a brand-new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority.Blockchain technology such as Bitcoin utilizes a public ledger, in which all transactions are recorded and validated through the network. Bitcoin was invented in 2009 by “Satoshi Nakamoto”, an unknown person that nobody truly knows who he/she is.
It has the first-mover advantage in the crypto-space and is currently the most popular cryptocurrency by market-cap. Having seen unprecedented percentage gains over the course of the past few years it is unlikely that this level of growth can be carried forward into the future.
That being said, Bitcoin generates a huge amount of mainstream media traction and it is being implemented into more and more stores as a payment option. Examples of noteworthy Bitcoin adoption would include the famous pizza purchase on May 22nd 2010 where a developer purchased two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, now worth several million dollars, and Microsoft and PayPal adoption in 2014.
What are the benefits of using Bitcoin?
- First-mover advantage
- Tried and tested algorithms, very secure
- Most altcoins are tied to BTC
- Low max supply of 21,000,000 BTC
- Lightening network to fix scalability issues
What are the disadvantages of using Bitcoin?
- Extremely high miner fees
- Proof of Work mining is highly energy inefficient
- Other newer generation cryptocurrencies are more advanced
- Not ASIC resistant, therefore more centralized
Should you invest in Bitcoin?
Due to bitcoin being the most popular coin by market-cap, this has both advantages and disadvantages from an investment perspective dependent on your outlook.
Firstly, due to the large market-cap, the coin will be less volatile in it’s price and could therefore be deemed a more “safe” investment. However, this also leads to a lower chance for huge percentage gains like you can achieve with a good but undervalued altcoin.
In general, I feel diversification is key to success and it would be wise to pick a few coins (with BTC being one of them) to invest in. Bitcoin, although with its flaws, remains a solid investment in 2018 and I can see it reaching its old all time high of approximately $20,000 again sometime this year.
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DISCLAIMER: This is NOT financial advice. The cryptocurrency market is volatile and you are at risk of losing your money. Only invest what you can afford to lose.
Donations:
BTC Address - 1JQGxuVLQf1hAz6i2dpitvGNvkTSKD8xAC
LTC Address - LdHvzzi5ZhZZr9Ce5gek9rgmJXbk78tQD7
ETC Address - 0xae041220e640Ca52BCa8644B178682fC12705cBA