The origin of Bitcoin

[Paphos Life]

Let's have a discussion on bitcoin. I am reproducing the following article not because I agree with it, but because I think it would make for an interesting discussion.
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Besides the basic definition of a virtual currency, Bitcoin is a revolutionary idea that amazes the world. Although it is not the world's first cryptocurrency, it has inspired an entire industry, transforming the way people move money and invests worldwide. However, Bitcoin???s history has a series of setbacks and challenges that you must know to understand its journey to the top....

Read the article and chat about it below...

[Dominic]

Personally I am 100% against bitcoin. Not even because of the risks involved. I am against it because of its environmental impact. When the planet is already teetering on the brink of oblivion it is obscene to invest countless amounts of energy in mining for theoretical constructs that don't actually exist.

[WHL]

I signed up for an internet TV streaming service, which back in the day, only took payment in Bitcoin, so I opened an account with Blockchain, there was about twenty pound remaining in the account, my son checked the account for me the other day, ant that twenty pound has grown to a few hundred pound, thats in about three or four years.

[Dominic]

That must have been a well dodgy streaming service.

[WHL]

That must have been a well dodgy streaming service.

Aren't they all But joking apart, they are the best out there, I got a lifetime service for about a hundred pound, every sports/tv channel under the sun, never a buffer or a freeze.

[PW in Polemi]

Interesting article, but I still wouldn't touch Bitcoin or any other crypto currency with a barge pole.
Yes, I know it is possible to make money, even now, although the heady days of vast profits are, I suspect, over and it is only those scammers who try to encourage you to buy into what is essentially a pyramid investment (with talk of x% interest paid per week) that will make any money. I was stringing one along a while back, entertaining myself and preventing him spending time on somebody more gullible than me, and from what he told me, if I was to invest say 100 to buy Bitcoins or whatever crypto currency he was using, then he would get 5 and my now 95 would be invested to earn interest. If I encouraged a friend to invest 100, I would get 5 and he would get 5 so my friend would only have 90 to invest ....
The fact that scammers use this crypto currency so readily, and there appear to be no checks or balances or regulation, really puts me off dabbling. That, and the fact that I really do not fully understand it.

[WHL]

Crypto currency's are not investments, look at them as a gamble, treat it as having a bet.

[Devil]

The origin of bitcoin? I can answer it in one word: GREED.

[WHL]

The trouble is WHL that many youngsters are bring drawn into cypto-currency "investment" - or as you rightly say, gambling - by so-called advisors who post videos on Tik-Tok. That's the place to go, apparently.

I'm sure many of us were caught by the dotcom bubble, so we're once bitten-twice shy; but Generation Z do not have this prior knowledge and are fearless, and vulnerable.

Unfortunately people are drawn too quick easy dosh, it just happens crypto is the flavour of the month, as was pyramid schemes in the past .

[Oxfordboy]

Oh my goodness, why does everyone tar all crypto/digital currencies with the same brush? They aren't all dodgy wannabe Bitcoins and often have specific use-cases. Bitcoin itself is certainly environmentally horrendous, but the main reason China cut it off was because it had just launched the digital Yuan and didn't want the competition. Blockchain technology is being used more and more these days and not just for crypto currency transactions, and many countries are looking at digitising their national currencies.

[PolemIan]

Our accountant told me the other day, rightly or wrongly, that if your (Cypriot) bank catch you buying Bitcoin with your account they will close your account down straight away.

Not sure about that one, our accountant has bought and sold Bitcoin and I’m pretty certain we’d have heard pretty quickly about his account being closed.

Ian