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Wednesday, 19 October 2016

How do Bitcoins have a real world value?

As Bitcoins continue to be mined they begin to create more value since more and more people begin to own them. You can kind of think of them as trading cards or beanie babies. The longer you hold onto these things the more value they tend to take on as more and more people begin collecting them. The biggest difference is you can’t take your Babe Ruth rookie card to the car dealership and trade it for a car because it’s not a universal means of exchange like Bitcoins or a credit card. You have to go through the painstaking process of finding a buyer and turning that card into money. Bitcoin itself has consolidated that process.
People worked hard for months or years to mine these things, investing time, hardware, and energy in the process. This is where the initial value of the currency is born, since time and money was used to create them.

Put yourself in the shoes of a miner: you invest time, money and brainpower into mining these coins against thousands of other people around the planet. You’re not just going to give them all away for free. Everyone wants to get their money back from an investment, so people started exchanging Bitcoin for different things including currencies like the US dollar and the Euro. In return this allowed new people outside of the mining ring to collect and exchange Bitcoin, thus the currency began to grow which started to create a networking effect.

Now normal everyday people are exchanging cash for Bitcoins, wondering what the hell can I do with these things?

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Japan is Proving to be a Major Bitcoin Haven

A new reality series entitled BitGirls is slated to bring bitcoin to the masses. The program is designed to educate the general public about digital currency usage with the help of an all-female cast who “become” digital currencies during the show and complete various challenges. Viewers can support their favorite players by purchasing her tokens and giving her points to move ahead in the competition.
The show will play on Friday nights starting in November, and will be broadcast on Tokyo Metropolitan Television. Producer Takao Asayama explains:


“People have to watch [the] TV live instead of recording it. Otherwise, viewers could miss a good time to sell [or] buy.”
In other news, digital currency users in Japan may be subject to tax relief in the coming months. Members of the Finance Ministry and Financial Services Agency have been discussing the prospects behind “reducing costs for buyers” and lowering taxes for virtual currency exchange operators. Granted headway is made, sales tax on digital currencies could cease as early as next spring.
Japan is the only leading country that taxes bitcoin sales. Last May, bitcoin regulation also became a relatively hot topic when a bill regulating digital currency was introduced to exchange operators. Since Mt. Gox, the country’s reputation has been subjected to backlashing, anger and mistrust amongst digital currency users. Slated to take effect soon, the new bill is aimed at giving digital currency enthusiasts and exchange operators a greater sense of security. The bill will allow the FSA to conduct on-site inspections, and enforce “know your customer” practices, which have often been non-existent in the digital currency arena. The bill also specifically defines virtual money as a form of payment.
It is estimated that there are about 2,500 stores in Japan that accept bitcoin.

The Complete Guide

In this tutorial, we will cover everything you need to know about bitcoins.

The tutorial starts off with the basics of installing the computer software to make bitcoins work, but moves into the more advanced parts very quickly.  After reading this Instructable, you will have learned all the basics for starting your work with bitcoins.  Whether you know what bitcoins are, or if you're just here to start making free money by doing almost nothing, you've come to the right place.

Read on to learn what bitcoins are, and how they can be used in a everyday computer-person life.

Understanding Bitcoins

After reading many, many different articles all over the internet, I still didn't have a good idea of what bitcoins were, how they could be made, and if it was possible for the average person to use them.  The first few things I read, they were made out to sound like you had to have a computer science degree to get them.

However, after reading on about them, I learned that they are a type of currency that is 100% virtual.  There is no government that regulates the currency, like almost every other single currency in the world.  Instead, it is all virtual.  The bitcoins that you own are stored on your computer.  You can sell these bitcoins for real US or Canadian dollars.

Below is a YouTube video explaining the whole concept of bitcoins. While good for visual learners, some like to read to learn.

Bitcoins are a virtual currency.  The currency is stored locally between peers.  The currency (bitcoins) is transferred from computer to computer.  Every transaction (transfer of bitcoins from one computer to another) is verified by "mining" for bitcoins.

When first learning about bitcoins, you learn that bitcoins are stored directly on your computer.  So, does that mean that by doing a bit of computer hacking you can give yourself thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins?  The answer to this is NO! The system is worked out so well that hackers cannot do this.  The reason is because for bitcoins to be transferred from computer to computer, the transaction has to be verified.  This verification is done by "mining."  Mining is a process where everyday people like you and I install some software onto their computer   This software is very advanced and hard to understand, but basically it does some high-level computing (SHA256 decoding) to verify transfers of bitcoins.

The next question that often comes up is: Why would anyone want to just give up their computer to help decode these encryption things?  Well, the answer is that you get paid to do it.  Well, you don't get paid, but you get free bitcoins for letting your computer work for you.  This is almost the same as being paid, as you will learn in later steps.  This is the ONLY way that new bitcoins are created.  They can't just come from nowhere, making the system hacker-proof.

Mining can be very simple, but it can also be very complicated.  By following this Instructable, you will learn one of the easiest ways to mine bitcoins and gain money.

Friday, 7 October 2016

Bitcoin operators shut shop in India amid RBI warning

New Delhi: Some of bitcoin operators in India have began suspending their business following RBI's caution towards use of such virtual currencies because of capacity cash laundering and cyber security dangers.



while RBI is yet to pop out with a clean regulatory framework for bitcoins, which have been gaining forex the world over during the last few months, it has issued an advisory cautioning trendy public against use of bitcoins and other digital currencies.

inside days of this advisory issued on December 24, some of entities offering bitcoin offerings have suspended their operations, temporarily or indefinitely, even as websites of a few others have gone down.

Related Topics Indians lose crores in bitcoins as Japan exchange collapses


Bitcoin is a digital foreign money that can be generated thru complicated computer software systems with solutions shared on a network, even though the method is complicated and such 'mining' may be executed best on very effective servers.

hardly three years into existence, bitcoin has already become the world's most high-priced forex and its in keeping with unit value soared beyond USD 1,000 degree or about Rs sixty three,000 these days, despite the fact that the fees have now slipped below Rs 50,000 stage.

there was a phenomenal surge within the change fee for bitcoin from little over USD 200 to properly beyond USD 1,000 at some point of November, but there was an severe volatility considering that then and the RBI's caution has similarly delivered to its woes in India.

one of the bitcoin operators in India, buysellbitco.In, has posted its website, "submit the RBI round, we're suspending purchase and sell operations till we are able to define a clearer framework with which to paintings.

"that is being achieved to protect the hobby of our clients and in no way is a mirrored image of Bitcoin's true ability or charge," it stated.

another entity, INRBTC also said that "in light of RBI's be aware, offerings of INRBTC.Com are being suspended indefinitely".

Explaining its selection, INRBTC stated that RBI has said that users of virtual currencies are uncovered to each criminal and monetary dangers.

"similarly it (RBI) states that absence of statistics of counterparties should concern the customers to unintended breaches of Anti-money laundering and preventing the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legal guidelines," it brought.

"The handiest option left now is suspend the services till in addition preparations can be made," INRBTC said, whilst including that every one trades which have been achieved until December 26, 2013 may be processed completely.

"All pending orders might be cancelled and the deposits on the ones orders might be refunded one hundred percentage to the customers," it stated.

Many other web sites offering bitcoin offerings in India have gone down, even though a few continue to perform as of now despite increasing regulatory glare on bitcoins globally.

at the same time as authorities and professionals have become concerned approximately its capability money laundering risks, concerns have additionally been raised approximately this new phenomenon snowballing into an 'e-ponzi' or an digital version of investor fraud, given the developing promotion of bitcoin as investments without any allowing guidelines for them.

Related Topics 100% Blockchain for Dubai Government by 2020


in step with a senior professional said, pressure has extended on regulatory and enforcement organizations in India after present day moves with the aid of China and France on this front.

"The fact remains that regulators are scrambling for ways to alter this whole gamut of virtual currency, as it is a totally new concept in India and even the jurisdiction isn't always clear as but on who must regulate them," he said.

even as the us has declared that each one triumphing money laundering legal guidelines could observe to bitcoins, China has requested its banks and other economic establishments no longer to deal in bitcoins and the public has been requested to do so at their personal threat.

except, France remaining week warned its banks about risks associated with bitcoins.

at the same time, the specialists are also elevating concerns approximately cyber safety troubles, given the large scope of cash laundering and other unlawful activities via use of an unregulated digital foreign money idea.

Bitcoin came into lifestyles in 2009 and the cutting-edge wide variety of bitcoin gadgets generated thus far stands at approximately 12 million. but, most effective a small range of bitcoins are being used for actual commercial and retail purposes and a majority of transactions are taking place for speculative investments.

including to the demanding situations earlier than the regulators, this e-forex is already being everyday through some online retailers in international locations like the US, China and some others, for various purposes which includes pizza transport.

those looking at this new phenomenon include almost all economic sector regulators as additionally businesses mandated to handle monetary crimes, which include RBI, Sebi and numerous groups below the Finance Ministry, a senior authentic said.

at the same time as regulators are tight-lipped about their course of action, a senior official stated that one possible way forward may be following the usa, wherein government have determined to difficulty bitcoins to cash laundering guidelines applicable to all other economic transactions inside the usa.

Regulators also are looking into claims being made through some entities of being registered bitcoin change companies, despite the fact that they could have simply registered as a organisation with the Registrar of companies for accepted commercial enterprise functions.

To make matters worse, this digital foreign money has emerge as new tool for fraudsters who are selling bitcoins as the subsequent large funding merchandise with unlimited returns.

a few lawsuits have already poured in approximately bitcoins being utilized by some operators in positive new-age and e-versions of multi-degree advertising or ponzi schemes.

Regulators fear that this new phenomenon can deliver upward thrust to a brand new type of illegal investment schemes that might be very difficult to song and clamp down. there is almost 0 physical hobby whilst dealing in bitcoins and almost all transactions take region within the digital layout.

Indians lose crores in bitcoins as Japan exchange collapses

In a impolite jolt to developing digital forex frenzy in India, bitcoins really worth crores of rupees held via some Indians have vanished with crumble of Japan-based Mt Gox, which became the arena's biggest bitcoin exchange thus far.



In a impolite jolt to growing digital foreign money frenzy in India, bitcoins worth crores of rupees held with the aid of a few Indians have vanished with crumble of Japan-primarily based Mt Gox, which became the world's largest bitcoin trade so far.

Having filed for bankruptcy, Mt Gox has admitted to have misplaced 7.5 lakh bitcoins of its customers and one lakh of its personal, which together are envisioned to be well worth approximately $zero.five billion (over Rs. 3,000 crore).

The alternate become predominantly used by foreigners, inclusive of those operating on behalf of customers from India, even as some Indians have been at once trading there. In its financial disaster submitting, Mt Gox has listed 1.27 lakh creditors, bulks of which might be foreigners and just about 1,000 from Japan.

The debacle can also intensify requires stricter regulatory checks on bitcoins and other virtual currencies in India and other international locations.

most of the affected Indians refused to discover themselves, fearing probing questions from tax and other government in India as they'd normally used untaxed money for buy of these bitcoins and had been seeking out smooth returns in this so-far unregulated market.

however, many bitcoin operators and traders confirmed that majority of bitcoins held by way of Indians have been being traded on Mt Gox and the price of those lost there will be at the least Rs. 10-20 crore.

There are over 35,000 bitcoins (worth over Rs. 100 crore) held by using Indians across the u . s ., while many NRIs also are dealing in this popular virtual currency, which currently trades at $550 apiece but isn't sponsored via any financial authority or actual asset.

India, that's domestic to two hundred million net customers, has of past due seen a exceptional upward push in bitcoin fanatics lured by means of go back capability, anonymous nature of transactions and natural novelty, amongst others.

today, it prices approximately Rs. 37,000 consisting of costs and expenses to buy simply one bitcoin from Indian operators, a lot of whom have been doing commercial enterprise carefully after the Reserve financial institution final 12 months issued an advisory warned the general public about the ability risks related to such currencies.

The bitcoin used to cost close to Rs. one lakh a chunk just a few weeks again, but fee have tumbled for diverse motives inclusive of for problems at Mt Gox.

After three weeks of speculation about the fate of the Tokyo-primarily based trade, which had suspended withdrawals early ultimate month, the bitcoin fraternity was stunned after Mt Gox claimed hackers stole a total of 850,000 coins.

Cyber criminals had been sporadically stealing bitcoins and its other siblings worldwide however this could be the most important heist till date.

"There may be quite a few India whose bitcoins have were given stuck at Mt Gox. We at the least recognise three Indians who've got affected," stated Sathvik Vishwanath, a founding member of Bitcoin Alliance India.

"The Mt Gox shutdown that occurred did affect plenty of humans. a few Indians we understand have their BTC stuck there," stated Sylvester, who is part of a well-known organization that organises Bitcoin meetups in Delhi.

whilst the Mt Gox debacle has hit the fledgling bitcoin community hard, the incident has additionally exposed the susceptible security of bitcoins, which exist as small software, towards state-of-the-art hacking attacks. however, a few accept as true with blaming the entire incident on unknown hackers might be a way to cover extreme accounting or technique deficiencies in this situation.

"because of their beyond delays, it turned into tough for Indian clients to switch and obtain fiat cash from Mt Gox. however this will be a large-scale fraud as well. eight,50,000 cash globally can't be just stolen without coming beneath any individual's note. it is subsequent to impossible," stated a bitcoin fanatic, who works in a Bangalore situated IT firm.

The digital forex's enterprise group, the Bitcoin foundation, has sought to assure Bitcoin users that their price range might not disappear due to robbery or mismanagement. On remaining remember, there had been one hundred forty virtual currencies having a combined cost of $9.3 billion.

side by using aspect, the usa and jap prosecutors have started out investigations into events main to the eventual shutdown of Mt Gox. the ecu Banking Authority is working to installation a venture pressure soon to review options for regulating Bitcoin and such virtual foreign money derivatives.

100% Blockchain for Dubai Government by 2020

In a significant endorsement of blockchain technology, the underlying innovation of bitcoin, the Dubai government will see of its documents on a blockchain. 



The government of Dubai will see all of its documents on a blockchain by the year 2020. The announcement was made via the Dubai Media Office’s official social media account, citing Hamdan bin Mohammed, the hereditary Prince to the crown of Dubai.

Furthermore, the Prince revealed that Dubai will also be executing all its transactions on a blockchain by 2020, as a part of a new program called the “Dubai Blockchain Strategy.”

Respectable details of the brand new government directive, decided by means of Dubai’s Sheik Mohammed, are currently scarce.

The crown prince additionally delivered that the Dubai future basis could be tasked with overseeing the approach to its implementation, even as the clever Dubai office executes the directive.

The Dubai authorities’s hobby to position itself as a blockchain hub and include the generation become first discovered in February 2016, when its Museum of the destiny basis mounted the ‘worldwide Blockchain Council.’

The subsequent month of March saw the council planned and draw plans for initiatives to investigate, discover and develop distributed ledger era.

Still, few would have expected the Dubai authorities to start a sweeping directive to enforce blockchain technology. Even fewer could have foreseen any situation in which a central authority began a essential shift to transport all its official records to the technology powering bitcoin.

Sunday, 2 October 2016

How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK

So, you've heard all about the advantages of this amazing new financial technology called bitcoin, but how do you go about buying it in the British Isles?
While bitcoin makes sending payments between countries – or even continents – quick, cheap and easy, traditional banking systems have yet catch up. As a result, users buying bitcoin through a bank account report frustration with complex procedures, delays while funds arrive and high fees for international transfers.
Credit and debit cards will often incur charges too, and not all companies will accept them due to the risk of fraudulent chargebacks.
As a result, if you're not paying with cash at a bitcoin ATM or from an individual at a meetup, buying bitcoin is best done by fast and free domestic bank transfer – if you can find a bitcoin business offering that option, that is.

The banking issue

The problem is, British banks are reluctant to service bitcoin companies so many exchanges are having to bank elsewhere in the EU. In these cases, you'll have to put up with charges on international transfers like SEPA and often wait 2–5 days for your funds to arrive.
The British government has made some noises about turning the country into a cryptocurrency-friendly environment. However, as it stands, a UK exchange providing SEPA bank transfers offers few advantages over any exchange in the EU – apart from being able to deposit in GBP, perhaps.
However, new banking partnerships are being forged that allow bitcoin exchanges add local deposit options for UK customers.

A note on price

Bitcoin is notoriously volatile – that is, the value can climb and drop significantly over short timeframes.
As a result, bitcoin buyers would do well to keep an eye on the price charts in order to make, hopefully, a timely purchase when the value is low. Indeed, many people earn money trading bitcoin, making the most of its volatility.

Bitcoin exchanges

Cryptocurrency exchanges offer a way to buy (and sell) bitcoin – and sometimes other digital currencies such as litecoin and dogecoin.
First things first, you'll need to register and provide proof of residency (a copy of recent utility bill) and identity (a photo ID scan) for anti-money laundering (AML)/know-your-customer (KYC) compliance procedures before you can use the platform's services.
Once that's done, you'll need to set up a bank payment using the details provided by the exchange, at which point you can fund your account and buy some bitcoin.
Note that it's worth avoiding using the word 'bitcoin' in the payment reference too. While this may sound odd, jittery banks have been known to balk at anything to do with the digital currency, even closing some accounts in the past.

Why Use Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a relatively new form of currency that is just beginning to hit the mainstream, but many people still don't understand why they should make the effort to use it.
Why use bitcoin? Here are 10 good reasons why it’s worth taking the time to get involved in this virtual currency.

It’s fast

When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. Similarly, international wire transfers can take a relatively long time. Bitcoin transactions, however, are generally far faster.

It’s cheap

What’s that you say? Your credit card transactions are instantaneous too? Well, that’s true. But your merchant (and possibly you) pay for that privilege. Some merchants will charge a fee for debit card transactions too, as they have to pay a ‘swipe fee’ for fulfilling them. Bitcoin transaction fees are minimal, or in some cases free.

Central governments can’t take it away

Remember what happened in Cyprus in March 2013? The Central Bank wanted to take back uninsured deposits larger than $100,000 to help recapitalize itself, causing huge unrest in the local population. It originally wanted to take a percentage of deposits below that figure, eating directly into family savings. That can’t happen with bitcoin. Because the currency is decentralized, you own it. No central authority has control, and so a bank can’t take it away from you. For those who find their trust in the traditional banking system unravelling, that’s a big benefit.

There are no chargebacks

Once bitcoins have been sent, they’re gone. A person who has sent bitcoins cannot try to retrieve them without the recipient’s consent. This makes it difficult to commit the kind of fraud that we often see with credit cards, in which people make a purchase and then contact the credit card company to make a chargeback, effectively reversing the transaction.

People can’t steal your payment information from merchants

This is a big one. Most online purchases today are made via credit cards, but in the 1920s and ’30s, when the first precursors to credit cards appeared, the Internet hadn’t yet been conceived. Credit cards were never supposed to be used online and are insecure. Online forms require you to enter all your secret information (the credit card number, expiry date, and CSV number) into a web form. It’s hard to think of a less secure way to do online business. This is why credit card numbers keep being stolen.

It isn’t inflationary

The problem with regular fiat currency is that governments can print as much of it as they like, and they frequently do. If there are not enough US dollars to pay off the national debt, then the Federal Reserve can simply print more. If the economy is sputtering, then the government can take newly created money and inject it into the economy, via a much-publicised process known as quantitative easing. This causes the value of a currency to decrease.
If you suddenly double the number of dollars in circulation, then that means there are two dollars where before there was only one. Someone who had been selling a chocolate bar for a dollar will have to double the price to make it worth the same as it was before, because a dollar suddenly has only half its value. This is called inflation, and it causes the price of goods and services to increase. Inflation can be difficult to control, and can decrease people’s buying power. Bitcoin was designed to have a maximum number of coins. Only 21 million will ever be created under the original specification. This means that after that, the number of bitcoins won’t grow, so inflation won’t be a problem. In fact, deflation – where the price of goods and services falls – is more likely in the bitcoin world.

It’s as private as you want it to be

Sometimes, we don’t want people knowing what we have purchased. Bitcoin is a relatively private currency. On the one hand, it is transparent – thanks to the blockchain, everyone knows how much a particular bitcoin address holds in transactions. They know where those transactions came from, and where they’re sent. On the other hand, unlike conventional bank accounts, no one knows who holds a particular bitcoin address. It’s like having a clear plastic wallet with no visible owner. Everyone can look inside it, but no one knows whose it is. However, it’s worth pointing out that people who use bitcoin unwisely (such as always using the same bitcoin address, or combining coins from multiple addresses into a single address) risk making it easier to identify them online.

You don’t need to trust anyone else

In a conventional banking system, you have to trust people to handle your money properly along the way. You have to trust the bank, for example. You might have to trust a third-party payment processor. You’ll often have to trust the merchant too. These organizations demand important, sensitive pieces of information from you. Because bitcoin is entirely decentralized, you need trust no one when using it. When you send a transaction, it is digitally signed, and secure. An unknown miner will verify it, and then the transaction is completed. The merchant need not even know who you are, unless you’ve arranged to tell them.

You own it

There is no other electronic cash system in which your account isn't owned by someone else. Take PayPal, for example: if the company decides for some reason that your account has been misused, it has the power to freeze all of the assets held in the account, without consulting you. It is then up to you to jump through whatever hoops are necessary to get it cleared, so that you can access your funds. With bitcoin, you own the private key and the corresponding public key that makes up a bitcoin address. No one can take that away from you (unless you lose it yourself, or host it with a web-based wallet service that loses it for you).

You can create your own money

In spite of the amazing advances in home office colour printing technology, most national governments take a fairly dim view of you producing your own money. With bitcoin, however, it is encouraged. You can certainly buy bitcoins on the open market, but you can also mine your own if you have enough computing power. After covering your initial investment in equipment and electricity, mining bitcoins is simply a case of leaving the machine switched on, and the software running. And who wouldn't like their computer to earn them money while they sleep?

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. No one controls it. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by people, and increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems.

What makes it different from normal currencies?

Bitcoin can be used to buy things electronically. In that sense, it’s like conventional dollars, euros, or yen, which are also traded digitally.
However, bitcoin’s most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it different to conventional money, is that it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network. This puts some people at ease, because it means that a large bank can’t control their money.

Who created it?

A software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin, which was an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce a currency independent of any central authority, transferable electronically, more or less instantly, with very low transaction fees.


So you can’t churn out unlimited bitcoins?

That’s right. The bitcoin protocol – the rules that make bitcoin work – say that only 21 million bitcoins can ever be created by miners. However, these coins can be divided into smaller parts (the smallest divisible amount is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and is called a ‘Satoshi’, after the founder of bitcoin).

What is bitcoin based on?

Conventional currency has been based on gold or silver. Theoretically, you knew that if you handed over a dollar at the bank, you could get some gold back (although this didn’t actually work in practice). But bitcoin isn’t based on gold; it’s based on mathematics.
Around the world, people are using software programs that follow a mathematical formula to produce bitcoins. The mathematical formula is freely available, so that anyone can check it.
The software is also open source, meaning that anyone can look at it to make sure that it does what it is supposed to.

What are its characteristics?

Bitcoin has several important features that set it apart from government-backed currencies.

1. It's decentralized

The bitcoin network isn’t controlled by one central authority. Every machine that mines bitcoin and processes transactions makes up a part of the network, and the machines work together. That means that, in theory, one central authority can’t tinker with monetary policy and cause a meltdown – or simply decide to take people’s bitcoins away from them, as the Central European Bank decided to do in Cyprus in early 2013. And if some part of the network goes offline for some reason, the money keeps on flowing.

2. It's easy to set up

Conventional banks make you jump through hoops simply to open a bank account. Setting up merchant accounts for payment is another Kafkaesque task, beset by bureaucracy. However, you can set up a bitcoin address in seconds, no questions asked, and with no fees payable.

3. It's anonymous

Well, kind of. Users can hold multiple bitcoin addresses, and they aren’t linked to names, addresses, or other personally identifying information. However…

4. It's completely transparent

…bitcoin stores details of every single transaction that ever happened in the network in a huge version of a general ledger, called the blockchain. The blockchain tells all.
If you have a publicly used bitcoin address, anyone can tell how many bitcoins are stored at that address. They just don’t know that it’s yours.
There are measures that people can take to make their activities more opaque on the bitcoin network, though, such as not using the same bitcoin addresses consistently, and not transferring lots of bitcoin to a single address.

5. Transaction fees are miniscule

Your bank may charge you a £10 fee for international transfers. Bitcoin doesn’t.

6. It’s fast

You can send money anywhere and it will arrive minutes later, as soon as the bitcoin network processes the payment.

7. It’s non-repudiable

When your bitcoins are sent, there’s no getting them back, unless the recipient returns them to you. They’re gone forever.
So, bitcoin has a lot going for it, in theory. But how does it work, in practice? Read more to find out how bitcoins are mined, what happens when a bitcoin transaction occurs, and how the network keeps track of everything.