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Message: [QUOTE="uconntoatl, post: 3551347, member: 6672"] I'll do my best here. In the past your analysis is pretty spot on. If you don't know, research the Silk Road and how Bitcoin was first used for all sorts of illegal things. Bitcoin is backed by blockchain technology (like all other cryptocurrencies). There is also a fixed number of Bitcoin, so no more can ever be created. Every transaction made using bitcoin is logged onto a public ledger in blocks of transactions (after so many transactions occur, a new block is created to continue logging legit transactions) aka the blockchain. Bitcoin can be transferred from one wallet (assigned to a user that is encrypted with a bunch of numbers and symbols) to another. The creation of a wallet is logged onto the blockchain. To make sure a transaction between one wallet to another is a true transaction (that one wallet actually has the amount they say they have and is valid), a bunch of miners (anonymous computers) will verify this by looking at the blockchain (public ledger) that these are legit wallets addresses, and also verify the wallet that is sending the bitcoin actually has that amount of bitcoin in the wallet. Once again, this is verified through the blockhain, as every wallet's purchase of bitcoin is logged into the blockchain. For performing this verification, the miners are rewareded with a small amount (a fraction) of Bitcoin, providing incentive for miners to continue verifying transactions. Thus, the blockchain creates a decentralized avenue of verifying transactions, vs. a bank (centralized). To further clarify, any person in the world can set their computer up to be a miner. Today, you pretty much have to buy Bitcoin on an online exchange, so you have to create an account to do so, so not as shady (completely anonymous) like before. Bitcoin can also be used to buy other cryptocurrencies. I would say an advantage to cryptocurrency in general is that as long as you have internet access, anyone in the world can receive "digital currency" in a matter of seconds/minutes, and is almost impossible to hack. Something like 8 or 9 years ago, you could buy Bitcoin for less than a dollar. A couple years ago one Bitcoin was worth $20,000. Currently, the price of one Bitcoin is floating around $9800. Bitcoin essentially acts a store of value. Taking blockhain technology a step further, companies like Ethereum are baking in "smart contracts" into the blockchain. For example, you and me could agree to a smart contract based on a bet that we have. I bet that UConn will beat Syracuse by at least 50 points this year. You say that UConn will win, but by less than 50. If you and me wanted to wager this and not have to worry about when we would pay each other, we could write a smart contract into the Ethereum blockchain agreeing to this bet. Once the game finished, a company like Chainlink (that verifies real-world data and uploads this data into smart contract blockchains) would execute our agreed upon bet, and that money in the form of Ethereum (Ether) would automatically end up in one of our accounts within minutes. Take this concept of smart contracts and expand it to all aspects of life agreements (payroll, mortgage, insurance, etc...) [/QUOTE]

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