https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj Bitcoin is hard to understand en-us 2019-03-30 21:51:13 UTC 2019-04-04 21:33:28 UTC hello@padlet.com elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347430837 Here you will find answers to questions like: 
- What is Bitcoin?
- Why was Bitcoin created?
- How is a bitcoin created- how are there more today than when they first started?
- What are the advantages of using Bitcoin over a traditional currency?
- What are the disadvantages?
- How does mining Bitcoin work? 
- Is it worth investing in Bitcoin now? 

There is a lot of confusion surrounding what Bitcoin is, what it does, and why it even exists, or needs to exist. Prior to researching this topic, I knew nothing. I will also say that it is extremely hard to grasp at first. I will now let you know my findings in an attempt to give you a basic understanding of Bitcoin. When you get to the bottom of the page, you should have answers to the questions stated above. ]]> 2019-04-02 00:49:55 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347430837 elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347448498 To put it super simply, Bitcoins are money. You can buy things with Bitcoin, because they hold real world value based on the faith people have in the purchasing power of a bitcoin. One bitcoin is currently worth 6544 Canadian dollars, so you might say that people have 6544 dollars worth of faith per bitcoin in its value. Just like any currency, it is backed by a promise of being able to be traded in for a certain amount of real-world goods.

Say a bitcoin was created closer to its inception on September 30, 2013. It would only be worth $119.73, because the currency was quite new, and people didn't have a lot of faith in the purchasing power of bitcoin. Say a new bitcoin was created on December 11, 2017, it would be worth $17 060.55, because at that time, people had a lot of faith in the purchasing power of bitcoin.

Bitcoin can be said to be volatile, because the faith that people have in the purchasing power of Bitcoin is much more unsteady than the faith people have in the purchasing power of traditional currencies, like the Canadian dollar. That is why the value of a Bitcoin goes up and down so much- faith in it's purchasing power goes up and down a lot. As time goes on, if faith in the purchasing power of the Bitcoin becomes more stable, then the value will stabilize, and it will be considered less volatile. 

I chose this video because it includes a fairly okay introduction into the world of Bitcoin, and all of the questions it raises about Bitcoin can be answered by the subsequent videos and websites, which go into a bit more detail. ]]> 2019-04-02 02:26:10 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347448498 elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347692284 Bitcoin is essentially a decentralized electronic payment system. This means that rather than being issued by a central agency or governing body like a bank, this currency is created by people out of thin air (much like banks are allowed to do when they write someone a loan), and transacted through the internet- directly from person to person- all over the world. It is decentralized because transactions are not verified or backed by a central governing body, and it is electronic because it exists entirely online. ]]> 2019-04-02 15:43:28 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347692284 elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347889817 When you go to the gas station and buy a chocolate bar, you give them the money and you get the chocolate bar. This is a normal transaction- you, the clerk, and everyone standing around the cash know that you bought a chocolate bar, and how much you paid for it. With bitcoin, transactions are a bit different in that they are entered in a public ledger- a ledger that everyone on the Bitcoin network can see. But they don't see Harpreet paying Joel $2.05 for a chocolate bar, they see a bunch of numbers signifying the sender's identity sending a specified amount of Bitcoins to another set of numbers signifying the receiver's identity. This way, everyone on the network can see that someone sent someone else $2.05, but they can't see who they are or what it was for. 

I included this video because it includes a lot of information about the nitty gritty about what goes on in a Bitcoin transaction. You could get actually a lot nittier and grittier, but I feel as though each of these videos could be an assignment's length in themselves, if we were to take time to explain the ins and outs of each aspect of the Bitcoin mechanics. To be honest, because of the length of time it would actually take to explain all of Bitcoin in depth, I'm actually only scratching the surface about how Bitcoin works in this assignment. ]]> 2019-04-03 01:39:48 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/347889817 elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/348731575 2019-04-04 21:12:42 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/348731575 elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/348732193 2019-04-04 21:15:47 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/348732193 elford_joel https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/348735731 2019-04-04 21:32:38 UTC https://padlet.com/elford_joel/m8gsvz7f9irj/wish/348735731