It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network and a digital currency that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen.
Bitcoin is the most important digital currency in the world, created in 2009 by an anonymous person or organization under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin enables faster payments (and micropayments) at low costs and avoids the need for centralized authorities and issuers.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency asset that started operation on January 3, 2009, based on a paper published under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The trading unit of Bitcoin is written as BTC and can be exchanged with legal tender such as dollars and yen. In addition to Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies include Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and other unique currencies.
- You don’t have to carry cash – The same applies to credit cards, but in the case of credit cards, the store must pay a fee to the credit card company.
- Bitcoin denominated or yen denominated – It is possible to select a convenient (cheap) currency depending on the payment rate at that time.
- Micropayment (small amount payment) – It is a system that allows you to pay even a small amount of less than 1 yen, and it was too costly to realize with a normal payment system. Bitcoin can be used for micropayments, so it can be used for small businesses and donations.
How Bitcoin works
Bitcoin is electronic data distributed on the Internet. Unlike legal tenders such as the Japanese yen and the US dollar, there are no central banks or public issuers. Since it is a decentralized (P2P *) currency managed on the Internet using blockchain technology, it is possible to trade freely without being limited to a specific issuing institution. Especially for people who are worried about their own currency, exchanging Bitcoin for legal tender is also a risk aversion, and it is possible to send money to the world safely and at low cost in a short period of time.
P2P（Peer-to-Peer） is a communication system that allows terminals that are on an equal footing on the Internet to directly connect and exchange information.
What is a blockchain?
Blockchain is a technology developed to realize Bitcoin in a ledger (distributed ledger) that records all transactions. Blockchain is a mechanism that can guarantee trust even in the absence of an administrator by storing the same data on all computers connected to the network. Blockchain technology is an innovation that will be utilized in various fields such as FinTech in the future.
Features of blockchain
- Data cannot be tampered with
- Managers do not
- It does not depend on the system
What you can do with Bitcoin
Bitcoin has the highest market capitalization among crypto assets and has a large supply and demand, so the value of Bitcoin itself fluctuates up and down. There is also a long-term investment to buy (while the price is cheap) from now on, anticipating the future of Bitcoin, from the method of making a profit by buying (or selling) in the short term aiming at the fluctuation of its value. In addition, we have introduced other crypto assets, and it is possible to reduce the risk of fluctuations due to transactions between crypto assets, hedge, and manage assets by creating a crypto asset portfolio.
When sending fiat currency, there are costs such as high bank charges. There is an additional risk of exchange fluctuations when sending money overseas. It takes several days for overseas remittance, but it takes about 10 minutes for Bitcoin remittance. Moreover, since there is no intermediary for Bitcoin remittance, you can send money directly to the other party at low cost.
It can be used as a payment method when paying for goods like cash or credit cards with Bitcoin. There are three reasons why the number of companies and stores that can actually pay Bitcoin is increasing steadily.