UNITED STATES—Though bitcoins have been around as early as 2010, this virtual currency has been stepped into the light as a controversial topic. According Bitcoin.org, it is a sort of virtual currency that can be obtain by purchasing them, accepting them instead of credit card payments over the internet, and a process known as Bitcoin Mining. Each currency is equivalent to $868.99 (USD), and though it is a form of virtual currency, bitcoins can be used to purchase virtual items for online gaming; to physical items, like books, socks, food etc.
The initial problem with the bitcoin, despite its high value, was a lack of places to use the currency; though their website, bitcoin.org, encourages people who are trying to start a business to use the virtual currency as a way to promote themselves. What appeared to be a limited and unpopular form of money has made headlines, as one bitcoin user used the coins they made online to purchase a Tesla car from a dealership in Newport Beach,California.
Used by those familiar with the Internet as a way to make spending money, the currency was primarily made in the competitive field of Bitcoin Mining. Bitcoinmining.com explains bitcoin mining as consisting of “miners’ using special mining software to solve bitcoin algorithms to earn a certain amount of bitcoins. A video provided by the Bitcoin Mining website goes on to say that this method “provides a smart way to issue the currency and also creates an incentive for more people to mine. And since miners are required to approve bitcoin transactions, more miners equates to a more secure network.
The network automatically changes the difficulty of the math problems depending on how fast they’re being solved. In the early days, bitcoin miners solved these problems with the processors in their computers. As the use of mining grew in popularity, individual miners found that they would receive less bitcoins and decided to participate in “pooled mining” which allows a few miners to put their processors together solve problems faster and distribute the winnings amongst themselves.
The virtual demand to use and receive bitcoins to make payments grew, as they can be used internationally and locally; but their along with their popularity, the growing controversial use of bitcoins has also risen. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese search engine, Baidu, ceased to accept the bitcoin as a form of currency causing the form of money to decrease in value, going from a little over $1,000 to $868.
Bitcoin users, speakers and sponsors look forward to the Bitcon Convention in Amsterdam on May 15 – 17, 2014. The last bitcoin convention took place inSan Jose, California. According to a press release on the 2013 Bitcoin Convention website; the Bitcoin Foundation spoke about the currency’s “growing impact on the -payment landscape.”
