Bitcoin lets you send money over the Internet
Bitcoin is like email
[email protected] [email protected]
The Internet
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Multibit - DesktopThunderbird
Gmail Electrum - Desktop
Blockchain.info - Browser
“Bitcoin Wallet” - Android
Bitcoin-Qt - Desktop (Fullclient)
Armory - Desktop
Bitcoin is another currency
Bitcoin is another currency
How to get bitcoins?
Exchanges
Person to person
Why is Bitcoin better?
Truly international
Online shopping
Much cheaper than wire transfer
$-30.00
-$0.0001
Much cheaper than wire transfer
$-30.00
-$0.0001
(How can you send 5 dollars overseas?)
Difficult to block
Protect your money from inflation
Hold your own money
It’s money with an API!
Sending
money over Twitter
Sending
money over Reddit
What is Virtual Currency
• What is virtual currency?
• What is the connection between virtual currency and gambling?
• Virtual currency as currency used in social gaming (Value of virtual currency and virtual goods are generally restricted to virtual world) (E.g. World of Warcraft Gold, Zynga poker chips)
• Virtual currency as electronic money (Form of alternative currency not produced by any central banks) (E.g. Bitcoin)
Bitcoin
• Created by “Satoshi Nakamoto” – an anonymous or pseudonymous developer or
group of developers
• Debuted in 2009
• Used in peer-to-peer transactions in which participating parties recognize its value
• No central bank or clearing house, no financial regulator, not tied to any currency
• Bitcoin are stored and sent through e-wallets
• Traded/exchanged through online virtual currency exchanges (Mt. Gox, TradeHill)
Bitcoin (cont’d)
• Approximately 11 million Bitcoin have been mined, 21 million Bitcoin in total.
• “Miners” – supply Bitcoin network with computing power needed to maintain the
security of the block chain (a distributed technology that acts as Bitcoin’s ledger)
• Every single Bitcoin carries the entire history of the transactions it has undergone,
and any transfer from one owner to another becomes part of the code
• Bitcoin is stored in such a way that the new owner is the only person allowed to
spend it.
• Miners are rewarded with “blocks” of issued bitcoins (a “block” currently contains 25
bitcoins); this is how currency is issued
• Price of Bitcoin fluctuates wildly. As of April 23, 2013, 1 bitcoin is worth $130 USD
Bitcoin (cont’d)
Bitcoin/ $USD chart