Everyone by now must have heard about the term Bitcoin, as it features almost daily in the newspaper; from soaring Bitcoin prices to hackers demanding payment through Bitcoins (more recently Wannacry attack), and RBI being reluctant to enter into its regulation.
Founded by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency has an obscure beginning during the financial crisis of 2008-2009, with populist agenda of taking control out of governments and bankers that usually control the flow of currency. From its humble beginning, it has been growing into maturity rather quickly, with people looking at it with awe and jumping eagerly to invest in it. Within just a decade of its existence, it has become a popular way of the transaction because of the following reason:
• Freedom of payment
• No counterfeiting
• Full users control and high level of security
• Transparent information
• Low fees
• Fewer risks for merchants
The investment into bitcoin is going up day by day, and here are the two ways of investing in it:
• Mining
• Buying
Mining of Bitcoins is done using a specialized program that works to decrypt the algorithm, thus uncovering the code for each coin. But here is the catch. Earlier when Bitcoins was new, it was mined quickly and easily by home programmers. But since Bitcoins are limited (21 million units only, out of which 14 million are already mined and are in circulation), the complexity required to mine grows with each mined coin. At present, there are dedicated miners with specialized hardware and software who mine it rapidly. Also, the computer power required to mine is too high and it would take longer than an individual life to mine a Bitcoin, that’s why the only other alternative left is to buy it.
It is high time to buy a Bitcoin because in the long-term its price is going to soar with short-term decline given that there is a limited amount of it available. Case in point: In October 2016 a single Bitcoin traded around Rs 45,000 and in October 2017 it is trading at around Rs 3,85,000. A person who invested last year has clearly made a profit of about Rs 3,40,000.
Any can buy the Bitcoin with any of the Bitcoin Exchangers like Unocoin, Zebpay, BTX India, BuySellBitcoin, and among many others. Since Bitcoin is not yet regulated, so all these exchanges employ self-regulation to maintain the transparency and security associated with the exchanges. Moreover, several exchanges came on the common platform to form a common regulatory outside of government named Digital Assets and Blockchain Foundation India (DAFBI).
It may be a little challenging for the newcomer to trade Bitcoin, so it is advisable before trading one should make oneself acquainted with the nitty-gritty of it. For starters, Local Bitcoins may help you in finding people nearby who can transact with you in Bitcoin, but it is advisable to be cautious as scammers do also frequent this site looking for a chance of deceiving. New timers can also look at the website like Crypto Watch and Bitcoin Wisdom in making themselves aware about the second by second exchange rates of Bitcoin.
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