Faq Bitcoin
Bitcoins have value because they are useful as a form of money. Bitcoin has the characteristics of money (durability, portability, fungibility, scarcity, divisibility, and recognizability) based on the properties of mathematics rather than relying on physical properties (like gold and silver) or trust in central authorities (like fiat currencies). This article is only for historical reference as the fork to which this article refers was completed on August 1, 2017. For more information on Coinbase's plan for Bitcoin Cash please refer to this page: Bitcoin Cash FAQ.
Bitcoin is often referred to as a pseudonymous system. The ledger (the blockchain) that stores all transactions is completely open for everyone to read but you will only find Bitcoin adresses (such as 1Bg3LnGW8DfYuP4vUdVRnneqZerM6d1BuZ) that can't be direclty tied to a real person.
- Bitcoin is a revolutionary new kind of money and a currency without borders. It is the world's first and premier crypto-currency. We believe Bitcoin will revolutionize not only the world of internet payments but — perhaps more importantly — money as we know it.
- This section regards the FAQ that will answer basics of bitcoins in terms of its volume, creation and other relevant information regarding the cryptocurrency. It is aimed to help you learn more on exactly what bitcoin is. How Many Bitcoins Are There? We need to differentiate the total volume of coins from volume in circulation.
But, since transactions are open or everyone to see it is possible through some detective work to figure out quite a lot of information. Imagine, for example, that your friend Bob at some point sent you some bitcoin. You then know that a certain sender address belongs to Bob. You might also know about a donation address that the organisation 'We love guns' published on their web site. Now, if you see a transaction from Bob's address to the address of this organisation you probably know a little bit about a secret interest of Bob.
The way to protect against such things is to never reuse Bitcoin addresses. Most wallets automatically create new addresses every time you want to receive a payment, so you shouldn't have to worry to much about that. Also note that Bob could claim that the address actually belongs to a third party service that he uses. So while you can figure out a lot it is hard to definitely prove anything.
Cash App Bitcoin Faq
Also see How Bitcoin works.