Bitcoin is software, it is the Granddaddy of crypto (see my article on Crypto https://steemit.com/crypto/@silverbullion/what-a-crypto-noob-needs-to-know-about-crypto ). It lives on your computer your smartphone or your tablet. The main function of Bitcoin is to send and receive data (value) and have an irrefutable record of the transaction through the network protocol. Bitcoin is the protocol.
Bitcoin has no central authority. This means there is no one for you to run crying too if you have lost your bitcoin or your private key. It also means there is no other way to shut down your wallet than coming into your house and taking your device from you. It also means that there is no one place the government or central bank can go to, to close down bitcoin. Bitcoin is decentralised. A bitcoin node supporting the network could pop up anywhere. If one node or miner is shut down another can pick up the slack. No one person or group owns bitcoin. Everyone owns it. It is open source and belongs to all humanity. So humans have to grow up if they want to play with bitcoin because there is no safety net of a centralised authority.
Bitcoin is fully transparent and every single transaction is recorded. Each transaction is recorded and agreed by every device in the network (miners). It’s a decentralised ledger that cannot be gamed. If the network says (A) is what is written then that is what is written and that is what happened. Imagine if companies and governments used a fully transparent decentralised ledger to account for their spending. Every and anybody with access to the internet would know what our taxpayer money was being used for. Oh yes... The record cannot be altered or undone or deleted in any way. It is what it is. Humanity needs to grow up in order to be proud of what it spends its value on, same applies to governments.
There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins and each bitcoin is divided into 100 Million satoshis. There are 17 Million bitcoin wallets as of today. There are not enough bitcoins on the planet for every millionaire to have a whole one. Bitcoin has zero inflation once it hits the 21 million mark, miners will continue to be incentivised to maintain the network through transaction fees. Even with the apparent clampdown in China, the number of bitcoins transaction has remained fairly steady. As bitcoin ages, its price swings are not as erratic as they used to be in its first few years. Bitcoin is growing up.
Bitcoin is a new technological advancement in the transmission of value that is here to stay and it’s not going away. Bitcoin is like cash, but for the internet. You need to be grown up about how you handle your cash and who if anyone you give access to your wallet.
Do your own research. So that you know what you are getting into if you decide to take the plunge.
Are you mature enough to take responsibility for your actions and your value? If not please stay far away from bitcoin. There is no one to bail you out when you mess up. Imagine if the large banks had to operate like bitcoin does. Do you think they would have been bailed out by the taxpayer after the 2007 crash? Are you ready for the next irresponsible bank action that leads our economy down the tube?
Paying attention to bitcoin just might be worth it.