Virtual currency the Bitcoins’ way

If someone told you that something you cannot see in a physical form and existing as an online value but still called as coin and can be for transactions, would you believe it? Sounds a little fictional but this picture does exist in real life and is soon going to get bigger and better. Bitcoins is one such system which is going to make such virtual currency a much more accepted way all over the world.

Who regulates it?

Bitcoins is a virtual currency system which has not been a universal form of trading everywhere yet. That is why it is called as crypto-currency. It is not controlled by a particular bank or institution and hence is a decentralized way of dealing. It is unregulated and hence there is no limit on its usage. These coins are not physical and the value of each bitcoin is the bitcoin itself.

But there are people called ‘miners’ which is a huge network of people who keep a tab on bitcoins and each transaction being made by using it. They maintain a ledger in which the transactions of bitcoins are audited.

Then what is a bitcoin made up of?

It is similar to a text message on your mobile phone. It is small in size, a file, called as a blockchain. The blockchain for each bitcoin has two parts, an identification address which is around 34 characters and a history of the owner and user of that particular bitcoin. This history is the ledger which is audited by the miners.

There is also a third and more complex part of a bitcoin called as the private key header log. Every time a transaction is made from that particular bitcoin, a digital signature is captured to confirm the transaction. This digital signature is unique for each user and his account called as his bitcoin ‘wallet’. This ensures that the transaction has a digital confirmation but nowhere is the name of the user revealed. So it is open as well as anonymous at the same time.

What can one do with bitcoins?

Bitcoins can be used in all those online shopping websites which allow transactions using bitcoins-

• There are special places online like bitcoin stores where you can buy electronics and most of the other things too buy using bitcoins.
• You can get gift cards by giving the specified bitcoins for it. These cards are available at certain online stores and are spendable on those as well as other leading online stores too.
• There are certain foundations which work for noble causes and allow exclusive online charity payments through bitcoins.

How does one get these?

The easiest and most known way is to buy bitcoins in exchange for the local currency. You need to have a bitcoin wallet and then log in to get the exchange done. You can earn bitcoins by allowing those transactions if you are a seller.

This purchase has to be done by taking help of localbitcoins, which is the directory for getting bitcoins as per your local rates. There are sellers from where you can purchase these at the prices fixed. The entire process is easy, transparent and very safe. It is surely the next in thing.