About Bitcoin ~ The Progenitor of Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencyas a synonym spoken aboutBitcoin (Bitcoin）

In 2009, Bitcoin wasthe first cryptocurrencyto be released. For many people, Bitcoin is probably something you have heard of somewhere.

CurrentlyBitcoin's market capitalization stands out among cryptocurrencies, ranking firstin the market. By the way, the second place is Ethereum.

To learn about cryptocurrencies, it is important to first know Bitcoin.

◯ Bitcoin's developer Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin's developer isSatoshi Nakamoto

It is said that the person is not Japanese; it is believed to be someone from overseas.

In fact, the program for Bitcoin is publicly available on the Internet, and based on that program, you can create your own cryptocurrency.

There are currently more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies, and the reason so many unique cryptocurrencies could be created is that the program is published on the Internet. However,nine-tenths of cryptocurrencies are said to be frauds, and in reality many cryptocurrencies are created for the purpose of making money.

We will introduce methods to spot fraud in a separate article in the future.

◯ Market capitalization of Bitcoin

As mentioned at the beginning, Bitcoin's market capitalization is currently the highest among cryptocurrencies. And the second is Ethereum.

A high market cap indicates that it is the most traded.

When thinking about regular currencies, the world’s benchmark currency is said to the dollar. Therefore, dollars are actually the most traded. As you can tell from price movements, the dollar moves more stably (less volatile) than other currencies.

Conversely, currencies with low trading volumes like the Turkish lira have high interest rates but trade volume is small, so price fluctuations can be huge and you may incur more losses than the interest.

From this market capitalization, it becomes clear that trading is generally based on trust. Of course, there are exceptions where price is pumped mainly for speculative purposes.

However, for currencies with reliability, trading volume tends to increase, and although prices fluctuate, they tend to rise overall.

With Bitcoin, the amount of currency in circulation is vastly larger than other currencies. In the current situation, it is difficult for other assets to surpass Bitcoin's trading volume.

◯ Blockchain system

The blockchain system, which I introduced in the previous article, is the key technology of cryptocurrency.

・Low transaction fees

・No central administrator (transaction history is open and cannot be tampered with)

・Direct, low-fee transactions between individuals worldwide

In simple terms, these are the main features. (For more details, please refer to the previous article.)

Because of this technology, Bitcoin has drawn attention.

Unprecedented low fees.

Here is one example.

A cryptocurrency (system) called Ethereum

This system was offered before its completion without being open to the public.

Thereby, the developers succeeded in attracting 2.5 billion yen from around the world. The fee was 100,000 yen...

Because it was 10,000,000 yen out of 100,000,000 yen, the fee was 0.004%, truly a 'magic.'

This is something that can only be done with the blockchain system.

The next article will explain Bitcoin further, including more news.