What exactly is Bitcoin and how does it work?

1. 77

   cashmereposted 11 years ago

   What exactly is Bitcoin and how does it work?
   
   I've heard of a new currency which is not country specific but is being used online to make payements. Its called Bitcoin, but I have no idea how to use it and how you make it work. Do you know more about it?

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2. 41

   mrblueishmouveskyposted 11 years ago

   I investigated it a year or so ago as an online game I played switched to only accepting bitcoins and no longer paypal payments as the game designer was so convinced it was the future. 
   
   However the way one generates bitcoins or "mines" them is having a computer running a background program.  This has led to people setting up entire houses with overclocked (pushed to their limits) computers inside.
   
   We live in a world with a very large power crisis looming and still rely very heavily on non-renewables, the idea that someone would then create a "currency" that gets hundreds of thousands of computers around the world "working" on abosolutely nothing. wasting so much power and computer life so they can get a few "coins".
   
   I remember the Seti@home project which was similar except the computers processing was used to help search for ET,  analyzing results from hubble etc.. Bitcoins processing is pointless, its just wearing computers out for no reason.
   
   I wouldn't be suprised to find out the CPU / GPU manufacturers had helped back Bitcoins, they must've been rubbing their hands together in glee when they read how it worked.

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   1. 60

      Dont Taze Me Broposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Very interesting (you mean like virus software companies funding hackers to manufacture viruses they can protect us from?) but I for one still don't understand exactly how they are created and how they work.

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   2. 77

      cashmereposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      So you need to keep your computer on to generate Bitcoins? No payments needed? I'm still a bit confused about the whole thing.

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3. 62

   coolhubsposted 11 years ago

   This is a new currency for peer to peer  normally abbreviated as a p2p. You need not  worry about it as its quite new, but will soon catch up in the next 2 decades. Its mainly a virtue money which marketers can use to buy and do sales with in the internet- just like the dollar($), euro,yen,ksh,pound (£). For instance, say you want to buy a domain,you visit namecheap and as they are among the first companies accepting this currency, they will let you pay with bitcoin if you want. By 2040, it might be the most popular currency. For more info google or visit namecheap. Let me know if you need a link to more info

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