BITCOIN- IS IT WORTHTHE HYPE?BITCOIN- IS IT WORTHTHE HYPE?
If you are up to date with the most trending topics around the world, it is possible that you must have heard about Bitcoins and crypto currency. The blockchain technology is the new emerging technology which will probably shape the nature of the traditional ways of payments. Everyone including the Government Agencies to Financial Experts to entrepreneurs and Investors, everyone is perking up their ears at the mention of bitcoins. It can be assumed that the future has virtual currency in store.
Bitcoin was introduced back in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. In recent years it has become a worldwide buzz with crypto currency hotspots spring around the world. There is a strong opinion on the crypto currency and frenzy with people on both sides. Some do believe that crypto currencies are the next mode of payment which will be used by the future generation. It can potentially replace the traditional fiat currency. Payments with crypto currencies such as Bitcoin don’t involve any third party as it is a decentralized format. It provides a great degree of autonomy for the user. There are also low transaction fees and the transactions happen very quickly so there is no waiting period. The best part is that transactions through bitcoins don’t require any personal information of your personal identity is safe and secure. This way, there are no chances of identity theft.
The next great element about bitcoins is that it is quite secured. The transaction is verified by the network through the sender’s private key and receiver’s public key. If someone has your private key, only then they can have access to your account. This frees your from the bondage of credit and debit cards which can be easily hacked. Blockchains are the core technology of bitcoins.
Bitcoins started becoming the hottest topic among social media users.
However, bitcoins are used more as an investment than spending. Investors hold on to the currencies in hopes that the value will go up in the near future. It is expected that by 2022, the available Bitcoins would have been mined and there is no safe way to say that the investors will be kept afloat for much longer.
However, it is true that bitcoins have certain major drawbacks as it is at the present stage. The mining process is a very energy consuming process. In fact the energy consumption is expected to double up in the upcoming years. Unless the sector comes up with a different power generating idea, the bitcoins cannot be mined easily after all. It is also a concern that crypto currency is also used by different scammers to carry out their missions. It is also being used to launder money and criminal organizations and smugglers to carry out their missions actively. It also doesn’t help much that the market is a very volatile one. It is not a very stable sector to be in. because of a limited number of bitcoins, they are a lot volatile. However, if the government and the people accept the wide usage, the prices can actually increase and the price can settle in the near future. There is a big debate about whether the government should accept crypto currency as a mainstream currency. However, assuming all the technical and logical drawbacks, bitcoins still have a long way to go. No one actually wants to gamble with the country’s currency.
What is needed is more widespread acceptance among the mass public. It is also important to have appropriate government cooperation to make crypto currency more functional and more widely accepted. If it is properly introduced and managed, the crypto currencies can potentially replace the traditional fiat currencies of the present days.