What is Bitcoin?
It is a kind of digital currency, essentially a new form of money, that is tradable throughout the world. It is not an official currency, which means that it operates without the participation of banks or a clearing house.
Bitcoin can be transferred between individuals or between businesses to pay for goods and services, all without the need to use a bank, so exchange fees are less. Bitcoins have value, and as such is taxable, just like cash in your local currency. What Is Bitcoin Cash?
Advantages of Using Bitcoins
Some advantages of using bitcoin over another online payment method, such as PayPal, or even the same bank are:
- It can be used in any country without the need to convert the currency.
- Sending money from a business to individual costs less per transaction.
- There is no transaction limit per month
- Your account cannot be suspended or frozen.
- Transactions are irreversible, unlike PayPal payments.
- You can have bitcoins in a digital wallet and you can access it from your phone, tablet, or computer.
Many of these advantages occur because there is no central authority, such as there is in a bank. Of course, there may also be some disadvantages. Bitcoin is still considered experimental even by the same organization, so there may be risks when we accept bitcoin instead of cash. Bitcoin started in 2009.
Another potential advantage is that the fee for transferring bitcoins from one person or business to another is not related to the amount being transferred. Unlike other payment platforms that charge a percentage of the transaction value, bitcoins charge for the ability to reverse the transaction, the easier it is to cancel, the lower the fee.
A bitcoin transaction takes an average of 10 minutes to resolve, 90 at most. During this process, there are confirmations that the bitcoin transfer is taking place. The fewer confirmations are requested (you may not request) the lower the fee to send coins; there is never a fee to receive coins. But you can also ask for up to 36 confirmations to be absolutely sure that once the Bitcoins are in your account, they cannot be transferred without your permission.
This can be very useful when selling very expensive goods. On some payment platforms, the buyer can say they had a problem with an order and almost immediately get their money back, even without your permission. This does not happen with bitcoins, once the payment is in your account, it is totally yours.
Where to Get Bitcoin
There are a few ways to get bitcoins:
- You can buy bitcoins on an online exchange.
- You can get them from someone who already has them
- You can accept bitcoins as payment
- You can earn them by supporting the transaction verification process in the bitcoin system, called “mining”.
When using bitcoins you cannot make purchases through other payment platforms such as PayPal or Dwolla, due to the potential risk of fraud. Only approved Bitcoin exchanges can sell them. The value of a bitcoin at the end of 2015 was just under $400.
