Bitcoin - Práctica de idioma inglés

Federico Tomás Martínez

BITCOIN

What is Bitcoin and how does it works?

  Bitcoin is a digital money and payment network created in 2009, used not only by individuals but also by businesses. The number of Bitcoin users is growing day by day and we can purchase almost everything with them (goods, services…) online but also in physical stores.

 It is a kind of currency known as cryptocurrency, which means that there is not any central authority controlling or producing it but the control of its production and transactions is done by cryptography. This way, Bitcoin works on a peer-to-peer based protocol (P2P), with no central servers, and it’s controlled by users all around the world so no one can take advantage of an illegal or abusive use of the Bitcoin. Nowadays 85% of the cryptocurrency market is covered by the Bitcoin, the other 15% corresponding to other currencies as Litecoin, Dash or Primecoin.

 For the transactions each user has a Bitcoin wallet and address and it’s as easy as sending Bitcoins from one address to another, anywhere and anytime. These transactions can be anonymous since one Bitcoin address can be linked to a physic person or not, but there is a ledger named block chain where every of them is kept registered and which is accessible for everyone who wants to check the validity of the transactions.

 Bitcoin has such advantages as the comfort, simplicity and quickness of the transactions, security and protection of personal information of its users, or free control of the fees for each payment, but also presents some disadvantages such as its volatility, hacking or the purchasing of illegal goods and services as transactions can be anonymous and hardly tracked down, and also makes easier capital flight and money laundering as transactions are very easily made all around the world.

Bitcoin price and Bitcoin market statistics

  As a digital money, bitcoin operates in the currency market. It’s very volatile because its price is fixed by supply and demand, without any organism in charge of its regulation, so the price increases when the demand of bitcoins increases and vice versa. This problem would be fixed if the Bitcoin market grew up because now it’s still a small one so the price of the Bitcoin moves up and down very easily.  The price of the Bitcoin can also be affected by some political decisions, like in 2013 when Chinese government forbid national banks to operate with Bitcoins. This decision generated distrust in the Chinese markets and the price of the Bitcoin felt down.  

  Actually the number of Bitcoins in circulation is 14.717.450 with a total worth close to 3.600.000.000 USD. The price of a Bitcoin is around 247 USD/217 Euros/5.885 CZK, but it changes constantly as the supply and demand of Bitcoins evolves (“coindesk.com” shows the evolution of the price in real time).

  About transactions, there are more than 130.000 Bitcoin transactions per day with an estimated worth over 67.000.000 USD.

The future of the bitcoin

Despite all this numbers Bitcoin is still small and new services and features are being developed to make it bigger, since Bitcoin network was created to process a lot more of transactions than it does nowadays.

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