TheCable

Year 2016 was a very challenging year for most currencies across the world; the British pound fell to a 30-year low, the Nigerian naira sank to a 43-year low, some other currencies withstood the storm, but the bitcoin excelled.

In 2016, bitcoin was the world’s best performing currency. The currency gained more than 100 percent of its opening value in 2016, rising from about $400 per bitcoin at the beginning of the year to over $1,000 per bitcoin.

Due to the success of the currency, MMM Nigeria, the country’s most popular ponzi scheme, has adopted the use of bitcoin in paying participants.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BITCOIN:

Bitcoin is a digital currency invented in 2008

Bitcoin is a digital asset,  or means of value exchange, which is based on the ideas of cryptography. Cryptography is the study of hidden codes.

A bitcoin wallet address (where every individual keeps his or her bitcoin) looks like this: 1DTAXPKS1Sz7a5hL2Skp8bykwGaEL5QyrY. It is unique to every user.

The currency, which is a digital currency was invented by an anonymous Japanese programmer, Satoshi Nakamoto, on October 31, 2008. The Economist, revered British newspaper, regarded the bitcoin in January 2015, as “hard to earn, limited in supply and easy to verify”.

One bitcoin is worth about $1,000 or N490,000

The bitcoin, like all other currencies in the world fluctuates, depending on the sentiments of markets and the global economy. The pound sterling will fall due to Brexit, the naira will crash due to fall in oil prices, the bitcoin also reacts to market uncertainties.

However, the true value of a single bitcoin was around $400 in January 2016, but peaked at $1,162 on Thursday, January 5, 2017. The highly volatile currency fell by over 10 percent on Friday, after the Peoples Bank of China criticised the country’s bitcoin selling platform.

On the average, a bitcoin is about $1,000 or N490,000 at the Nigerian parallel market. As at 12:30pm on Tuesday, a bitcoin was worth $915. Interestingly, one bitcoin was worth only four cents in 2010.

How to buy a bitcoin

Bitcoin can be bought on various online platforms across the world, but the common platform in Nigeria is BlockChain.

It is more universal than the dollar, yuan, and pound sterling

Virtually every business man alive has heard of the US dollar, which is seen as the universal currency. It is issued by the US Federal Reserve. The British pound and the Chinese Yuan, are also very popular currencies issued by their respective central banks.

As for bitcoin, it is not issued by any central bank, and not restricted to any country of the world. It can be used anywhere in the world, and can be acquired by anybody in the world.

Though more people use the dollar today, than they do bitcoin, but the bitcoin due to its digital nature is potentially more universal than any currency in the world.

It can be mined, created by “anyone”

Other currencies in the world are minted by central banks, but bitcoin is mined (created) by programmers, who are versed enough to unravel some coding and mathematical mystery.

According to Nakamoto, there can only be 21 million bitcoins in history, hence the increase in price overtime.

Loved by WikiLeaks, Bitcoin can be bought or sold anonymously

The identity of bitcoin users is concealed, and not known to anyone else. Every user has a wallet, to which he or she can buy bitcoin, or sell, but anonymously. It was employed by WikiLeaks, when many donors were hindered from donating to WikiLeaks.

However, every transaction is recorded permanently, but anonymously.