Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, Public Chains- Steemit Crypto Academy Season4 - Homework Post for Task 5

Hello wonderful steemians welcome to my homework post for season 4 task 5, I would be completing this task by answering the following questions.

Question Two

What Is Bitcoin and what was the Aim Behind Bitcoin Invention? Is Cryptocurrency Good For A Business To accept As Payment? Why?

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What is Bitcoin

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The Origin of Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s white paper was released in 2008 and later launched by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. It is a digital coin operating on a decentralized platform eliminating the need for a middle man and is used in the exchange of services, products, goods and can also be used to purchase other cryptocoins.
Bitcoin is the first ever cryptocurrency in the world of crypto, it’s creation led to a new dawn in the financial market and also the birth of other cryptocurrency.

How Bitcoin is Generated

Bitcoin is generated through a process called mining, mining which is described by wikipedia as “the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth. In this case the extraction(generating) of bitcoin is done by solving very complex computational math problems with sophisticated computer systems, this process is also known as proof of work(PoW)

The mining process of bitcoin is essential to maintain the ledger of transactions (blocks) upon which bitcoin is based.
Miners of bitcoin ensure that each block of transaction is accurate and that there is no duplication of the coin, they get rewards for each new block they add and this block reward is halved in every four years.

How Bitcoin Works

The bitcoin crypto currency is made up of blocks joined or linked together to form a blockchain. These blocks are similar to an office ledger where transaction information are recorded for all time and can be Viewed anytime and by anyone, this ensures that no user spends their coins twice.

The Creator of Bitcoin

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Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym for the person who created the cryptocurrency bitcoin, although it is not known if the name refers to a singular person or group of persons. From research Satoshi started writing the code for bitcoin in 2007 and in August 2008 registered Bitcoin.org.
There has and there is still great mystery surrounding the creator of bitcoin, no one knows his or her real identity and also after the creation of block 0 the next block was not mined until after 6 days, ordinarily the timestamp gap is 10mins. This brought speculations as to the reason, most assumed he was re-enacting the creation story when God rested and others assume he backdated the time stamp after spending 6days mining the first block to check it’s stability.

The Aim Behind Bitcoin Invention

Bitcoin was created to bring about financial freedom to the public. It’s aim is hidden in the genesis block as a hex message when decrypted reads “chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks” this above statement shows the failure of the banking and financial system which lead to an economic meltdown hence the creation of bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s concept eliminates the middle man process, allows for transactions across the digital space, reduces transaction fee and is based on cryptographic evidence, all these would prevent a bailout from occurring.
Also, anyone can buy and own bitcoin and it’s supply cannot be affected by a singular authority.

Is Cryptocurrency Good for a Business to Accept as Payment? Why?

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Generally I would say Yes, because there is transparency and most customers or clients would love to invest in a business with a transparent transaction. Also the characteristics of cryptocurrency which are ;

1. The cryptocurrency being decentralized do not require trust in any central authority to be used.

2. Recorded crypto transactions on the block cannot be rewritten as it is protected by cryptography and it is public.

3. The cryptocurrency being decentralized has lower chance of failure because it does not rely on a singular authority but separate components.

All these characteristics above makes is good for a business to accept crypto as a means of payment.

But everything with advantages also has disadvantages so I might also say cryptocurrencies should not be used as a form of business payment for day to day transactions because of most coins volatility.

So, if a business must use cryptocurrencies I would suggest there is in-depth research to know what particular coin to use.

In Conclusion, the birth of bitcoin has brought great change in the financial market, now transactions are done faster with low transaction fee compared to that of fiat currency and users of bitcoin are in charge of their money.

Special appreciation to @stream4u for this wonderful lecture.

Thanks for reading, I hope you find it insightful.