Casascius Coin: A Physical tangible version of the Bitcoin

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Hi friends! how are you doing? Welcome to my blog, it's super good to have you back here. I trust you got value from my last post. I bring to you another interesting content, one that I believe you would find interesting as usual. In my previous post, we explored the concept "Aeternity Blockchain", you can check out my blog to read through if you haven't.

Today, we would be looking at Casascius Coin, what it is and what it stands for... it's actually another topic of interest I stumbled upon and felt like sharing with y'all. I hope you guys learn one or two from this write-up.

Introduction

Prior to this time, I've been seeing Bitcoin images, portrayed as coin in a very beautiful and fascinating form on online sites. I use to believe Bitcoin and other coin in the market only exist in a digital/virtual form and that those coin we see are just some virtual representation of the coin.

I just realized that the mother coin, bitcoin exist as a physical tangible coin and that there are still many of it out there apart from it digital form. Well we would delve even deeper discuss this subject and broadening our knowledge about it. Let's get into it guys.

What Is Casascius Coin?

Casascius coin is the physical tangible version of the Bitcoin and it comes in different designs, types and sizes. This means Bitcoin were minted like every other regular tradcoin and that it can be held tangibly unlike the view most of us have always held about it that it's only limited to it digital version.

The term casascius was coined out from the common saying "call a spade a spade" well this was where it the term was gotten. The coin is made up of high quality brass and embossed with a unique Bitcoin address. Meaning each coin cannot be faked because of the unique address.

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Now this physical Bitcoin is not limited in scope because it not about the metal one is holding but the unique address it carries. It therefore means you can send it into your wallet/exchange using the unique code and can use it for your purchases.

You can consider it a very viable way to store Bitcoin off-chain and have a feel of what it looks like in the real sense...sound amazing right?
Each casascius coin is loaded with a predetermined amount of Bitcoin and a private key which has been carefully sealed inside the coin.

If an holder of this coin wants to be sure of the casascius coin he or she is holding, he can look it up on blockchain.info by inputing the public key of the casascius coin, there he would get the info about the bitcoin physical representation he is holding.

Brief History about the casascius coin

The casascius coin came into existence in year 2011 by a man called Mike Caldwell, a software engineer from USA. These coin are made of brass with a weight of 28 grams and with a diameter of 30mm and are a bit thicker than a regular coin. Mike Caldwell continued minting these coin until 2013.

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He stopped minting in 2013 due to some legal concerns from the US Financial Crime Enforcement Network because they considered the activity as illegal form of money transmission.. He then concentrated on selling the existing coin he has until November that same year.

Due to the stoppage, the cost of these coin rose tremendously because demand rose and there was no equivalent supply. Record has it that at a point, one coin sold for $1000 on eBay, it continue like this until around June 2017 when record also had it again that the cost of one rose to about $28000.

Description of a casascius coin

The front of the coin carries the Bitcoin address while the back is stamped with a hologram. Underneath this hologram is where the private key of the Bitcoin would be found and that is after it must have been scratched to be revealed.

Kindly bear in mind that this hologram has a tampered proof or seal that keep it authenticity. It's also important to mention at this point that the value of the casascius coin is equivalent to the value of the Bitcoin it stores.

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A total of 27,938 casacius coins and bars were made by Mike Caldwell with an average worth of 91,262.8 BTC in three years. I think it also important I mention that other types of physical Bitcoin also came on board which includes Titan Bitcoin, Atana coins, Ravenbit Satoshi coin, coinedBits etc.

Casacius coin can be termed loaded and unloaded. This means that we have some of the casascius coin that do not have private keys. A loaded casascius coin is the genuine one having a private key and address which is used to redeem the coin but an unloaded one is the reverse order of the loaded.

Bottom Line

I believe by now you understand what Casascius coin is all about and the role it plays in storing the value of bitcoin. As my usual custom is, I would always encourage that you DYOR to be sure of every financial step you would want to take as I won't be liable for any form of loss encountered by you.
Feel free to share with me your thoughts in the comment section. Thanks for your time once again. Gracias!

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^{Disclaimer: This post is made as an education and not investment advice. Digital asset prices are subject to change. All forms of crypto investment have a high risk. I am not a financial advisor, before jumping to any conclusions in this matter please do your own research and consult a financial advisor.}

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Regards
@lhorgic♥️

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