It seems every other day has a new headline regarding ‘Bitcoins’. I am sure most of us give a casual glance at this word and wonder where it will go next. From a humble value of $1019 on January 1,2017 the value of Bitcoin has soared to $16,860 till date. This type of meteoric rise will obviously roll a few eyes! 🙂
Let’s refresh briefly:
- ‘Bitcoin’ is a cryptocurrency
- It was created by a highly doubtful ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ in January 2009
- It does not have any physical form
- It is largely based on ‘decentralised’ way of transacting business or the ‘blockchain'(no common authority to enforce regulation)
- It is accepted in a few countries and some goods can be bought with them
- Acceptance by different governments and countries is still an ongoing process
- In addition to its legal use,it is also used for illegal activities
What is Blockchain?
‘Blockchain’ is the underlying technology that supports Bitcoin. In simple terms, blockchain is a global ledger. Sending and receiving bitcoins are some example of transactions. A group of transactions will be considered as a ‘block’ which when approved is added to the ‘chain’. This chain cannot be deleted or changed. It is continously added and maintained by all nodes in the network.
Without a regulating authority like a bank, ‘blockchain’ has kept the Bitcoin journey alive for the past 8 years!
Future of Bitcoin:
I am no Bitcoin analyst and I do not have the crystal ball, but I can certainly state a few things! 🙂
- ‘Bitcoin’ and other cryptocurrencies will continue to hold people’s imagination and urge to invest for at least a certain period of time
- Since it is a completely volatile currency, it is not for the faint hearted
- Since it is not regulated, people with disposable income are the best individuals to invest in Bitcoin
- Even if one would like to invest in Bitcoin, good to start with a small amount
- Since the technology itself is evolving and nobody understands its implications fully, better to wait and watch and understand the nitty gritty details of ‘Bitcoin’.
Whether the cryptocurrencies will stand the test of time, the underlying blockchain technology will definitely shake things up in the technology world and will most likely outlive ‘Bitcoin’!
Most of the world’s top universities including Stanford university, Princeton university and e-learning portals like Udemy, Coursera have taken notice and started courses in Blockchain.