Bitcoin: Currency of future
Many of you surely already know about Bitcoin, but for people who still don’t know what it means, I invite you to read this little article. Surely after reading it you will understand it better.
What is Bitcoin? It is the first digital currency (cryptocurrency) based on blockchain technology and can be considered as a new payment system, since many companies already support bitcoins.
What is blockchain? It is a technology based in block chain, where there is a public, accounting and digital book in which all transactions are recorded. Its main characteristics are security and decentralization, that is, digital money can be used without the need for a central authority, such as banks.
Some history
On January 3, 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto launches Bitcoin. To this day, Satoshi’s true identity is still unknown. Thus, since 2009, the first peer-to-peer network (P2P – peer-to-peer network) based on this protocol comes into operation.
Open source software is in C++, a very robust language that appeared in 1983 and is still widely used today.
Starting in 2010, the first platforms to acquire bitcoins begin to emerge. These were obtained through purchases made with bank transfers. In its beginnings, 1 bitcoin was worth nothing and exchange was not possible either. But little by little it began to acquire value.
On May 22, 2010, the first purchase was made at a pizzeria that accepted bitcoins. Two pizzas cost 10,000 bitcoins, around $ 30. Today, the craving would be quite expensive, since 1 bitcoin exceeds $ 8,000.
Here I leave you this graph so that you can see the evolution, from 2013 to 2021. It can be seen how on December 17, 2017, Bitcoin reached its historical maximum and reached $ 20,000
Where do you buy Bitcoins?
Nowadays you can easily buy cryptocurrencies. Your purchase is made on pages or Internet applications specialized in Cryptocurrencies. You need a PC or smartphone, a checking account and an Internet connection. If you plan to buy bitcoins, do it on secure and trustworthy websites and make sure that the padlock 
and that the web address begins with https: //. This will ensure that our data travels safely.
I recommend the Coinbase website to begin with, as its user interface it is quite friendly and intuitive.
How are Bitcoins generated?
Bitcoins are generated through a process called mining, which consists of solving computer algorithms every ten minutes. Whoever finds the solution will be rewarded with an amount of the coin they are mining. The people who are dedicated to this are called miners.
Mining requires special equipment and mining software. Besides, a high cost in electricity consumption is required.
Where are the bitcoins kept?
As it is a virtual currency, it will be stored in a virtual wallet with an identification number. These wallets belong to the exchange houses where you made the purchase, such as Blockchain, Electrum or Coinbase.
You can also choose to save your bitcoins to a special USB device, Ledger Nano S.
How is its price determined?
Over time, its value has been changing. In 2010 it cost cents and today it costs about $ 8,000. The value is determined by its users, through the law of supply and demand. In other words, the price is set by averaging between the purchase-sale that users make.
It is possible to buy fractions of Bitcoins, it is not necessary to buy a whole Bitcoin as many think.
Other cryptocurrencies
There are many more cryptocurrencies, which start from the initial source code of Bitcoin and it has been modified or its code is based on bockchain. These are the so-called altcoins. The most popular ones are Ethereum, Litecoin or Ripple. Here you can see the complete list. Some of them are also currently accepted as a form of payment.
Like Bitcoin, its value is highly volatile. For this reason, there are also people who are dedicated to Trading.
It´s clear that over time Bitcoin has gone from being in the shade to being a protagonist and a competitor against fiat money.
Currently, many people are using Bitcoin as a form of payment or simply as an investment. By visiting the coinmarketcap.com page, you can see the current cryptocurrency capital that is currently moving the world. As of today it moves to more than 240,000 million dollars, but once it reached 600,000 million dollars.
Perhaps this global economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic is the definitive takeoff of cryptocurrencies. Who knows?