Bitcoin has become a hot, controversial topic, but what is it and how is it used? Bitcoin is one of several digital currencies, but, as of 2014, it is the most popular one. It is a form of money, but for online use only. Bitcoin is the system of how payments are made, while bitcoin refers to the unit of online currency. Unlike traditional currency, Bitcoin is not regulated by a central organization.
Even though it's been around for more than five years, not too much is known about the origins of Bitcoin. In 2008, a Japanese programmer or programming group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a report about digital currency. The following year, Satoshi Nakamoto presented software that would create the first Bitcoin network and currency. However, by 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from the online community.
How Bitcoin Works
In the simplest definition, bitcoins are online money, transferred from one person's digital wallet to another. A new user must install a Bitcoin wallet on their mobile phone or computer. Once the Bitcoin wallet has been installed, a Bitcoin address is generated. The payment transaction is similar to email with one exception: Bitcoin addresses should only be used once. A user can generate as many Bitcoin addresses as needed.
Users earn bitcoins by accepting them as a form of payment, trading, and completing tasks on various websites such as BitVisitor or CoinWorker. Another way to earn bitcoins is through a process called mining. Mining is how new Bitcoins are created. The process is similar to mining for gold. Bitcoin miners solve cryptographic puzzles to earn bitcoins. Like gold, there is a finite number of bitcoins. It is predicted that the last bitcoins will be mined by 2140. As of J...
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... could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted. A month after Shrem and Faiella were arrested, two men in Florida were also arrested for using Bitcoin currency in an alleged money laundering scheme. The case was believed to be the first involving Bitcoin currency in the state of Florida.
The recent arrests and charges involving Bitcoin throw a spotlight on concerns over digital currency such as a lack of regulation, online security and the fact that transactions are anonymous. The bitcoins also have no fixed value, a key difference with traditional currency. Therefore, no one can give the value of such items as a cup of coffee in bitcoin. Supporters love the no fees, no bank account, and no regulation of Bitcoin. However, critics of digital currency argue that it's the lack of regulation and anonymous transactions that are putting users at serious risk.
If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison on the most serious charge, which is a second-degree felony.
Goodale, Gloria. "Rise of Bitcoin: Is the digital currency a solution or a menace? (+video)." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. .
“The Economist Explains, How Does Bitcoin Work?” The Economist (2013): n. pag. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
This case illustrated that there were real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. (He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.) His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere.
A bitcoin is a digital document encoding a solution to one of a class of computational problems. The problems are hard to solve but the solutions once obtained are easy to verify. The identity of the Bitcoin user solving a problem is encoded in the problem itself so different users will never end up creating the same coin. Thus, the verification becomes easy and the rate of creation of new bitcoins can be kept in check. To transfer a bitcoin, its current owner appends a digitally-signed message of the form “I transfer t...
probably done this before. I assume he will be put in jail for a little while,
Further, there exist other elements that characterized Bitcoin and crypto currency. These are; there is lack of regulatory management and oversight. This mean that the currency has got what is known as anonymity which results from shortage of oversight. In this case, it means that once the currency is in the market, government and legal roles fail thus putting the crypto currency out of the currency market. The crypto currency litter the black market due to lack of this regulatory.
The documentary Banking on Bitcoin from director Chris Cannucciari was a documentary released in 2016. Throughout this documentary Cannucciari asserts that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is the future. Using Bitcoin experts and enthusiasts, this documentary is working to persuade people that Bitcoins peer to peer non-centralized system is the future and should be used over traditional banking methods. The targeted audience for this documentary is businesses, government officials, and anyone interested in the Bitcoin technology. The tone of this documentary is ardent while also informative.
But Bitcoin (capitalized as a concept, lowercased when referring to units of the currency, according to American Banker) is another animal entirely. It is the first and most famous of a large and growing family of so-called “cryptocurrencies.” Others include Litecoin, Feathercoin, Songcoin (“designed for The Music Industry”), Auroracoin (Iceland only) and Dogecoin (“the fun cryptocurrency”)—but Bitcoin is by far the largest. Its origin is traced to a 2008 paper written by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Newsweek recently claimed to have located the real one, but he promptly denied it, so the whole thing remains quite mysterious.
Bitcoin is a digital currency, similar to cash due to the fact it is instant, however, is not managed or controlled by a central government or organization. Instead, the network is run on thousands of independent user’s computers. None of these computers have more control over the network than any other computer. The network that Bitcoin was founded upon is based on 40 years of research in cryptography and over 20 years of research in cryptocurrencies by thousands of researchers around the world. Bitcoin answered what was thought to be an unsolvable math problem known as the Byzantine Generals Problem.
One of the constants of currency is that it is constantly changing. Sometimes these changes are for the worse, and sometimes they are for the better. Changes in currency can cause prosperity or famine. Currency is reaching another stage of development due to the introduction of computer technology. Virtual currency has become a possibility for the future, and bitcoin is exploring that new idea. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that has the potential to be the future of currency and comes with both advancements and detriments.
Firstly, an insight into crypto-currencies, what they are and how they can benefit the worlds economy. A crypto-currency is ‘digital medium of exchange’(RhettandLink) - managed through extensive encryption techniques known as cryptography. Comparable with fiat money, no group or individual can stunt, increase or abuse the production of crypto-currencies. No economic systems can regulate the production or value of the currency, the system that crypto-currencies are based upon was created by Satoshi Nakamoto - purposely creating Bitcoin which the practise of fractional reserve banking would be virtually impossible. Bitcoin is currently the most successful crypto-currency to date - created in 2009, this anonymous decentralized digital currency has been the target of several raids and hacking sprees; the media are contemplating the significance of Bitcoin in our current worlds economy. Whether it has potential of overruling fiat-currencies or if it’s just a puerile project created by the aberrant Satoshi Nakamoto.
... punishable up to 18 months in jail along with a $5,000 fine for each of this 6 counts (“Former”). In this case Walker allegedly operated in a fashion similar to the example given above in regarding self-dealing. Whether the work was performed in a manner that complied with all regulations, the act of self-dealing in itself is unethical and lead to the investigation by the OEC.
The marriage of Bitcoin and sports betting created a new medium through which winnings can be attained while taking part in some of the most anticipated sporting events in the world. By applying the basic concept of Bitcoin, sports betting is simplified and matches the efficiency of the modern payment system that is the perfect alternative to conventional payments.
The invention of money is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of human civilization. From the very beginning of society, people have used money to circumvent the difficulties of bartering and to foster trade and commerce. Since then, money has come a long way. No longer do we need to rely on silver coins, cocoa beans, or even anything of intrinsic value to conduct our business; today, we use paper currency, which is convenient and easy to carry around. But slowly, we are moving into the digital age of money, an age in which less of our money is actually tangible and more of it is just data on a computer server.