- 06Nov2017
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The Evolution of Bitcoin
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which was created eight years ago back in 2009. What made Bitcoin special was that transactions with the cryptocurrency do not need to go through banks, there is no middle man needed which is turn means there are no transaction fees. Bitcoin is not subject to any regulations which means that international payments are cheap and easy as well. It gets better…
Another reason why Bitcoin is unique is that it provides a high level of anonymity, meaning that the names of buyers and sellers are never revealed, the only way to trace the transaction is by tracking wallet IDs. This ID comes from a virtual wallet where Bitcoin is stored, it’s essentially a virtual bank account which enables to user to send and receive bitcoins.
What is Bitcoin worth today?
Bitcoin has been the rise recently. Just over a week ago we saw the value surge past $6000 USD, on the 2nd November 2017 the value is now closing on $7000 USD. Yes, you read that correctly. One bitcoin.
Now this isn’t just a “lucky” spike in value. This is a direct result of the recent announcements from CME Group. They have announced that there are plans to launch Bitcoin “futures product” in the final quarter of this year.
Now a futures contract is a binding agreement whereby the buyer will pay for the commodity now, but they will only receive it at an (agreed upon) later date. It is usually cheaper to do this than to directly invest into the commodity.
So let’s say you have $42,000 USD which would currently allow you to buy 6 Bitcoins but this capital could give you the opportunity to intensify the potential gains and losses, this however depends on the particulars of your final contract. I thought I’d give you an idea of how strong the cryptocurrency is today.
The table below shows how much one bitcoin is worth in our everyday currencies.
Yes, these figures are correct!
Have you ever purchased Bitcoin in the past?
Something to think about before I close this article out. I’ve recently read about a man named Kristoffer Koch. In 2009 he purchased (In Norwegian Krone) the equivalent of $27 worth of bitcoin which gave him 5000 bitcoins. He forgot about this purchase as the years passed by until 2013, where he discovered the total value of his Bitcoin wallet was now at $886.000. I understand exchanged only a fifth of his wallet, at this time the value of one bitcoin was roughly $173.2. So he took his $173,200 and bought an apartment in Norway.
Now just to put it into perspective. Hold on to your hats! Assuming he hasn’t touched the remaining 4000 bitcoins in his wallet, he would currently be holding the equivalent of almost $27.8 million USD which is 226,623,075.47 NOK! So who is panicking trying to find the Bitcoin they purchased over 8 years ago???
Sources: Fortune , The Guardian , Coindesk
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- 6 Nov, 2017
- NEBA Financial Solutions
- 0 Comments
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