Thursday, November 03, 2016

What is bitcoin? What is blockchain? And what is the difference?

Bitcoin is the world’s first global decentralized digital currency. As a crypto currency, it uses cryptography or math to control the creation and the transactions of bitcoin. These transactions are verified by a network of nodes on a distributed public ledger called blockchain.
Thomas Glucksmann, marketing manager, Gatecoin, is passionate about dispelling the myths around bitcoin. Here are some of them.

Virtual currencies have no value

“People always argue that bitcoin doesn’t have an underlying value. But I would argue that the essential value of it is the ecosystem,” said Glucksmann.
“Billions of people around the world are trading, transacting and mining bitcoin, and so it really recreates this global infrastructure that isn’t centralized at any one point. It’s secure, it’s safe, it’s government proof,” he said.
China is the largest trading platform for bitcoin. According to Glucksmann, 91% of global bitcoin trading is against the Chinese yuan and 95% of bitcoin global trading is controlled by exchanges in Mainland China.
The average bitcoin user is a 24-35 year old Chinese man. 97% of bitcoin users are men, according to Glucksmann.

Transparency

Lack of transparency is the biggest bitcoin myth of all, Glucksmann said.
The public ledger component of the blockchain technology used to transfer virtual currencies is the most transparent in the world. “It’s traceable and its permanent.”
Blockchain allows a user to be ‘pseudo anonymous’. For example, if a user makes or receives several transactions from the same wallet address, those transactions can be traced back to the single user. If a user sets up a new address for each transaction, it will become more difficult to trace transactions back to the same person.
However, many exchanges today are now requiring users to submit their passport details for KYC (know your customer) regulatory compliance, either to meet existing regulation or to pre-empt it, Glucksmann said.

What does bitcoin mean for marketers?

For businesses thinking about accepting bitcoin there are a range of payment processes.
Taxation and regulation depend on jurisdiction. In Japan, for example, it is regulated by the FSA. In China, it is viewed as a type of product or value equivalent to a type of property right.
“If you are just going to get the money in fiat there is no risk to you,” said Glucksmann.
Fees are considerably lower than a bank, with many bitcoin payment processes only charging a merchant fee if monthly transactions are above a certain amount. The fiat is then capped at around 1%. “Compare that to a credit card, which can range between 1.9% to even 4% or other payments such as Tenpay, Alipay at around 3%, and it’s still relatively cheap,” Glucksmann said.
Setting up a bitcoin wallet as a freelancer or small business is free.

2 comments:

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