17 August 2017, India:
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin has crossed $4,000 mark and is all set to cross $5,000 mark by end of this month. Markets hit a high of $4,418, according to the BPI, and at press time are currently trading at an average of $4,393.27.
Bitcoin prices have got a lift from heavy buying from Japan and South Korea. At the time of filing, 40 percent of Bitcoin trade was happening over the Japanese Yen and around 15 percent over the Korean won, as per cryptocompare.com.
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Tom Price, a London-based equity strategist, said he’s been fielding more cryptocurrency questions after prices recently soared past $4,000 a bitcoin, a fivefold increase from November 2016. Both bitcoin and gold offer similar benefits as a store of value, such as being fungible, durable, portable, divisible and scarce, but it’s too soon to call Bitcoin a superior investment, he says. “Over millennia, gold has demonstrated its ability to endure and preserve value under all circumstances,” Price said in an August 14 report. “By contrast, Bitcoin’s global platform literally requires the lights to stay on.”
Bitcoin is a digital asset and a payment system. It is commonly called a decentralized digital currency. It was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. It is an open source software. This means, that no person, company or country owns this network just like no one owns the Internet. The system is peer-to-peer, that is, users can transact directly without an intermediary like a bank, a credit card company or a clearing house. Transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain. (Image- Fortune)
Related read- Evaluating The Future of Digital Gold – Bitcoin
If you still don’t know what is Bitcoin and how does it work? Check out the video below-