Bitcoin is a digital form of cash. But unlike traditional fiat currency, there is no central bank controlling it. Each unit of Bitcoin is unique and cannot be copied or destroyed, and it runs on top of a distributed network, maintained by thousands of computers around the world.
Bitcoin Features..!!
- Decentralized access allowing any party with the open-source software and internet access to send and receive Bitcoin irreversibly without third party interference or trust.
- Decentralized governance via open-source development and forking.
- Relatively slow block times in comparison to other crypto-currencies although there are solutions in development such as the Lightning Network aiming to solve the problem of scaling.
- Largest hashrate (ensuring the security and resilience of the blockchain) and largest liquidity.
- Most common currency for crypto-currency exchange pairing
- The hard coded scarcity (maximum 21 million coins) has led to comparisons to traditional physical scarce resources like gold.
- Transactions are pseduo-anonymous. Funds are sent address to address, but an owner identity can eventually attributed to an address given enough data and analysis.
- Average blocktime of 10 minutes; Total supply of 21 million BTC; Consensus via Proof of Work (SHA-256).
Bitcoin Milestones..!!
31st October 2008 - White paper released by Satoshi Nakomoto.
3rd January 2009 - Genesis block mined by Satoshi Nakomoto.
12th January 2009 - First transaction using Bitcoin; Satoshi Nakomoto sends 100 BTC to Hal Finney.
22nd May 2010 - First recorded commercial transaction using Bitcoin; aka Pizza Day.
14th January 2016 - Lightning Network white paper, a Layer-2 solution to scaling Bitcoin.
1st August 2017 - Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork.
23rd August 2017 - Segregated Witness (SegWit) implemented.
What is Bitcoin halving?
An event that halves the rate at which new Bitcoins are created. It occurs once every four years.
Will the Bitcoin price change?
Historically, the price has gone up following a halving, but it ultimately depends on the supply/demand ratio.
Essentially, Bitcoin halving cuts down the supply of BTC, making the asset more scarce. If the demand is there, the price is likely to increase. There are also some historical precedents. On Nov. 28, 2012, the day of Bitcoin’s first halving, the cpryptocurrency’s price rose from $11 to $12, and continued to climb up throughout the next year, reaching $1038 on Nov. 28, 2013.
Roughly four years later, a month before the second halving, Bitcoin’s price started to follow a similar, bullish pattern. It surged from $576 on June 9 to $650 on July 9, 2016 — the day the block’s reward was reduced by half for the second time in the asset’s history. Again, BTC continued to accelerate through the next year, albeit with occasional turbulence, and traded at $2526 on 9 July 2017.
Will it be the same next time? Skeptics believe that the halving has already been priced in (remember this year’s epic, but short-lived systematic price increase?). Although, there is no scientific way to verify this.
Moreover, the industry has drastically changed over the last four years, as cryptocurrencies — and Bitcoin in particular — became an essential part of mainstream news coverage. Still, some people might be tempted to take the chance, especially given the previous patterns exhibited around Bitcoin halvings.
Consequently, if history repeats itself and the Bitcoin price starts going up in April 2020, even more traders might start buying the asset out of a fear of missing out, thus stimulating the demand, and, ultimately, the price.
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The information given is never financial advice. Always do your own research.
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