Bitcoin
Introduction
According to Wikipedia “Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency introduced as open source software in 2009 by developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a cryptocurrency, so-called because it uses cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money. Conventionally, the capitalized word "Bitcoin" refers to the technology and network, whereas lowercase "bitcoin" refers to the currency itself” (retrieved March 12 2014). Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym and may refert to group of people.
Digital currency like Bitcoins may in the future be used for educational micro-payment (e.g. buy a resource, follow a class, buy a batch for some completed class), since transaction costs are very low and do not require any credit card or banking account.
Bicoins can be otained in several ways. The easiest is though so-called digital currency exchanges (Wikipedia). You also can get payments, use machines (in some countries), etc. The Market value of one Bitcoin has been as high as $1000. On March 13 2014 it was around $650. Bitcoins can be used in very small parts (fractional coins).
There exist several other digital currencies (Wikipedia), e.g. Litecoin or Peercoin
Definitions
Bitcoin wiki (retrieved March 12 2014), defines Bitcoin as {{an experimental, decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network.}}
Popular BitCoin wallet defines Bitcoin “as a decentralized P2P electronic cash system without a central server or trusted parties. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of the network to check for double-spending.” (3/2014).
CointDesk (3/2014) provides the following definition: “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 lots of people running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems. It’s the first example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency.”
How it works
Bitcoins are created digitally by a long mining process using computers in a distributed network. The difficulty of the mining process is increased every two weeks. About 21 Mio Bitcoins will be created by 2140.
The same network then also processes transactions. Every 10 minutes a block of transactions is executed. I.e. it always will take about 10 minutes to process it.
Bitcoin transactions are sent to and from electronic bitcoin wallets.
Read more in:
- What is bitcoin? and how bitcoin mining works (CoinDesk)
- Bitcoin or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crypto (section 1), Udemy online class. by Charles Hoskinson.
Who accepts bitcoins ?
- The list of businesses (offline and online) is rather small, but growing. But many (e.g. Amazon) do accept vouchers and the vouchers can be obtained by third party businesses.
- In education (March 2014)
- University of Cumbria. Times Higher Education article, (UK)
Software
Bitcoin users do need so-called wallet software that allows to exchange Bitcoins.
- Bitcoin QT wallet software.
Links
Short introductions
(see also various web sites, below)
- What is Bitcoin and how does it work? Short Video (You Tube)
Serious introductions
- Bitcoin or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crypto, Udemy online class. by Charles Hoskinson. As of March 2014, probably the most complete free online class.
Exchanges
Organizations and Web sites
- bitcoin.org]. Main site of the "organization".
- Global
- CoinDesk, includes News and tutorials,
- The Genesis Block, includes market and mining statistics, plus blog posts.
- Local
Bibliography
- Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Retrieved March 2014 from https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf