As of November 13, 2024, the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin reached the ultimatum of $90,000 after the US President, Donald Trump pledged to ease their regulations around digital tokens.
Trump, during his election campaign, said that he wanted to make the United States the capital of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The last time he was President, the country saw significant tax cuts which brought more liquidity into the market and encouraged more investment in cryptocurrencies.
Last September, Trump also announced that he, along with his sons, is planning to launch a digital currency, so now we know where this is going and why these tax cuts and other easing laws were implemented. There may even be regulations for crypto assets, and a national Bitcoin reserve is one plan among others.
An Overview of Bitcoin
To give you an introduction, let us start with what bitcoin is. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that is used as a method of payment outside the control of a person or group. This acts as money in the virtual world. In financial transactions, this removes the need for third-party involvement. In ordinary people’s case, this removes the involvement of a bank when making a payment.
This currency, first introduced in 2009, is now the world’s largest cryptocurrency. This also led to the development of many other cryptocurrencies later.
Bitcoin mining is the process where a user gets Bitcoin as a reward for completing complex mathematical questions that progressively get harder. With the completion of each level, the “game” requires more energy and resources to the point where it takes up the electricity of a whole town or country. This intrigued many entrepreneurs to invest in this coin which led to the success of virtual currencies.
The first block, called Block 0 or the genesis block, was mined in early January 2009. The reward of this block was 50 new Bitcoins and this got halved every four years. Now, the reward for each block has decreased to 3.125 BTC. The next halving is estimated to be mid-2028 where the rewards would be 1.5625 TC.
Is Bitcoin A Good Investment?
As bitcoins could be exchanged for fiat currency through crypto exchanges, I don’t see why this is not a good investment to start with. Though it is filled with volatile prices, it really depends on your portfolio, risk tolerance, and investing goals. The best thing to do would be to seek advice from a finance professional to make sure your financial background can handle it.
How To Buy A Bitcoin?
For people who do not want to mine Bitcoins could try buying them using a cryptocurrency exchange. At the current prices, most people will not be able to buy one BTC, so they could consider buying portions of one BTC, exchanging it with fiat currency. The authorization will be quick and each user will get a key to the address which is used to authorize each transaction.
To buy the currency, the following steps are to be followed:
Step 1: From the official website, on the home page, tap the Bitcoin you would like to purchase.
Step 2: Enter the amount you would like to invest in US dollars or any other fiat currency and enter your wallet address. The notification requesting the amount will be automatically sent to your wallet.
Step 3: go to the crypto wallet and complete the transaction. The website will ask you for your card details and then you will indeed to verify your email.
Step 4: Once the payment is done, your wallet will be credited with the corresponding BTC of the value you invested in.
How To Mine A Bitcoin and How long does it take to mine a Bitcoin?
At first, it was possible to mine Bitcoin on a personal computer but as soon as it became more and more popular, more miners joined the network which lowered the chances for miners to win the rewards.
Users could still try using a personal computer as a new miner if it has newer hardware but the chances of solving a hash individually would be quite a task. This is because you will be competing with a whole number of miners who generate more than 600 quintillion hashes per second.
ASICS could generate up to 400 trillion hashes per second, which is why professional miners prefer that device over PCs. With the latest hardware in personal computers, miners could mine up to 100 mega hashes per second.
Also, it only takes up to 10 minutes for the mining network to confirm a block and generate rewards.
Will these coins ever be over?
There are a total of 19.7 million bitcoins in existence and according to some reports, there are only 1.3 million Bitcoins left to be mined.
Conclusion
Bitcoin being the first-ever cryptocurrency, we have seen how much it evolved and inspired new cryptocurrencies in the digital currency world. With the intention of using this as a form of payment outside the legal tender, it has worked out so well that the number of blockchains has become infinite.
Though the process of generating a Bitcoin is a bit complex, investors have to be careful about where and how they invest. When you are on the right track, you could easily start trading as though you are generating passive income out of it.