An Introduction to Bitcoin-The Digital Form of currency
- 2. •What is Bitcoin •Who created Bitcoin •Who prints Bitcoin •Why use Bitcoin •How does Bitcoin Work •Bitcoin Transactions •Bitcoin Wallets •How does one acquire Bitcoin •Advantages and Disadvantages of Bitcoin •The Dark side of Bitcoin •Tor Dark Markets
- 3. Bitcoin is a form of digital currency. , created and held electronically. No one controls it. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or Rupee – they’re produced by people, and increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems. It’s the first example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency. What is Bitcoin
- 5. Bitcoin was invented by an unidentified programmer under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. It was introduced on 31st October 2008 and released as an open-source software in 2009. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto still remains unknown. Who created Bitcoin
- 6. Who prints it? This currency isn’t physically printed by a central bank. Instead, bitcoin is created digitally, by a community of people anyone can join. Bitcoins are ‘mined’, using computing power in a distributed network.
- 7. It’s cheap Credit card transactions are instantaneous too? But merchants pay for that privilege. Some merchants will charge a fee for debit card transactions too, as they have to pay a ‘swipe fee’ for fulfilling them. Bitcoin transaction fees are minimal, or in some cases free. Decentralized Bitcoin is decentralized meaning no central authority controls it. and so a bank can’t take it away from you. Why Use Bitcoin
- 8. Safe and Secure Most online purchases today are made via credit cards, but in the 1920s and ’30s, Credit cards were never supposed to be used online and are insecure. Online forms require you to enter all your secret information into a web form. This is why credit card numbers keep being stolen. Bitcoin transactions, however, don’t require you to give up any secret information. Instead, they use two keys: a public key, and a private one. Anyone can see the public key but your private key is secret. When you send a bitcoin, you ‘sign’ the transaction by combining your public and private keys together, and applying a mathematical function to them. This creates a certificate that proves the transaction came from you. Why Use Bitcoin
- 9. Bitcoin can be considered as a mobile app or a computer program. Behind the scenes, the Bitcoin network shares a public ledger called the "block chain". This ledger contains records of every transactions ever processed. After depositing the bitcoins into a “wallet”, the wallet alerts every other user of bitcoins that it contains bitcoins. The transactions are eventually received by a miner, the miners incorporates these transactions into a block. This block is then flooded into the network and is incorporated into the global blockchain. HOW DOES BITCOIN WORK?
- 12. A wallet is a software or online service that stores the information necessary for bitcoins transactions. Software wallets can be further divided in two categories as: 1. full clients and 2. lightweight clients. Wallets
- 14. One can acquire bitcoin as: 1. A payment for goods, services etc. 2. bitcoins can be purchased at a Bitcoin exchange. 3. by exchanging bitcoins with someone 4. with competitive mining of bitcoin. Bitcoins can also be exchanged with real currency and can also be exchanged with someone who wish to sell his/her bitcoins in exchange of PayPal or PayTM or any other types of online payments. HOW DOES ONE ACQUIRE BITCOINS?
- 15. ADVANTAGES: •Freedom of Payment: Using Bitcoins it is possible to send or receive money anywhere in the world at any time. There is no central authority in the Bitcoin network. •Control and Security: Bitcoins allow users to be in control of their transactions and help keep their Bitcoins safe for the network. Merchants cannot charge extra fees on anything without informing. •Transparency: All finalized transactions are available for everyone to see, however the personal information of users are hidden. Bitcoin protocol cannot be manipulated by any person, organization, or government. This is due to Bitcoin being cryptographically secure. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BITCOIN
- 16. ADVANTAGES: •Very Low Fees: Presently there are either no fees, or very low fees within Bitcoin transactions.With bitcoin transactions, the users may include fee in order to process the transactions faster and safer.These services have lower fees as compared to credit cards and PayPal. •Fewer Risks: As Bitcoin transactions do not carry any personal information with them, and are secure, the users are protected from any kind of potential threats or losses that may occur from fraud. · With Bitcoin, merchants are able to do business where crime rates and fraud rates may be high. This is because it is very hard to cheat on anyone in Bitcoin due to the public ledger, the blockchain.
- 17. DISADVANTAGES: Lack of Awareness & Understanding: •People are still not aware of the digital currencies. •People need to be educated about Bitcoin so that they can use the bitcoin and digital currencies. •Very few businesses are accepting bitcoins in present. But in future the list may increase because of the advantages. •The employees need to be educated on Bitcoin so that they can deal with the customers.
- 18. DISADVANTAGES: Still Developing: •Bitcoin is still at its begining, with incomplete features that are in under development. •To make the digital currencies more secure and accessible, new features, tools, and services need to be developed. •Bitcoin need some growth to do before it comes to its full and final potential. As the bitcoin has just started, it needs to work on its problems just like any other new currency in its beginning stage would need to.
- 19. Bitcoin is greatly used for payment of some illegal items such as drugs, ammunition, weapons and many more. The criminal activities are primarily focussed on the darknet markets. The deep web and dark web is famous for its black markets, where the shoppers use Bitcoin or other form of crypto currencies to purchase illicit and illegal things from drugs to guns to stolen credit card details over the internet. The dark side of Bitcoin
- 21. TOR is an anonymity network. It provides a network where users can browse the net anonymously. Most of the URL in the darknet are unindexed and can't be found by search engines like Google, yahoo etc. Some of these sites can be found in hidden wiki, the hidden wiki is an Internet directory.The sites for buying and selling illegal items more often uses bitcoins as for transactions as the bitcoin is secure, peer to peer money. Tor Dark Markets
- 24. Conclusion •In future Bitcoin is going to gain popularity and might even replace official currencies. •Bitcoins can be helpful to a lot of people. Since they are an international currency. •Bitcoin can be used any on country without having to convert between currencies. •The Blockchain is really secure and it make sure that the money transactions takes place to the right person. •People receiving Bitcoins won't have to pay anything for the transactions.