The Bitcoin Blog

Many people have lost some data while reformatting a computer hard drive. Jered Kenna lost more than that. In 2010 he erased from his computer 800 Bitcoins that have been worth more than $200,000. Kenna isn’t upset: He has plenty more. He says he bought his first batch of virtual currency, 5,000 coins, at 20¢ each. On April 10, Bitcoins traded for as much as $258 each, according to Tradehill, a Bitcoin exchange in San Francisco, before plunging more than $100. Like other enthusiasts, Kenna shrugs off the volatility. While he won’t disclose his total holdings, he says, “I’m happy to be considered a member of the Bitcoin millionaires’ club.” Jered Kenna Created Seven years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is a virtual currency that can be used to buy and sell a broad range of items—from cupcakes to electronics to illegal narcotics. The surge in a Bitcoin’s value has made millionaires out of people who loaded up on them...

A well-timed investment of $1,000 in bitcoin has earned a 15-year-old Idaho entrepreneur more than $100,000 and allowed him to found his own education startup. Erik Finman took $1,000 he received as a gift from his grandmother and invested it in bitcoin back in 2012, according to a report by  Mashable . After holding his BTC for one year, Finman sold his bitcoins for $100,000. Finman ultimately decided to reinvest his earnings into Botangle.com, an online video tutoring service that "allows students and tutors access to a diverse array of resources that just do not exist in a normal classroom setting", according to its official website. Notably, Finman pays his employees in bitcoin. He told Mashable that he enjoys "sharing the wealth of bitcoin", saying: "I have no doubt it will be huger [sic] than anyone can imagine right now. Bitcoin is like the Internet in the '90s." Early bitcoin supporter Finman explained how he first came...

Bought in 2009, currency’s rise in value saw small investment turn into enough to buy an apartment in a wealthy area of Oslo  The meteoric rise in bitcoin has meant that within the space of four years, one Norwegian man’s $27 investment turned into a forgotten $886,000 windfall (in 2013). Kristoffer Koch invested 150 kroner ($26.60) in 5,000 bitcoins in 2009, after discovering them during the course of writing a thesis on encryption. He promptly forgot about them until widespread media coverage of the anonymous, decentralised, peer-to-peer digital currency in April 2013 jogged his memory. Bitcoins are stored in encrypted wallets secured with a private key, something Koch had forgotten. After eventually working out what the password could be, Koch got a pleasant surprise: “It said I had 5,000 bitcoins in there. Measuring that in today’s rates (2013) it’s about NOK5m ($886,000),” Koch told NRK.    Silk Road fluctuations In April 2013, the valu...

Bitcoin, still a financial technology in its infancy in terms of adoption, can seem mystical to some. Blockchain technology is unlike any other system currently powering currency, and as such is not properly understood by the public at large. To many, especially of the older generations, cryptocurrency can seem like magic, a trick of digital sorcery, and certainly not something upon which one would place their trust and life savings. To aid in the understanding of cryptocurrency, I will attempt to explain Bitcoin through the allegory of a pre-electricity village, without referencing any modern technology. Decentralized transaction records Our hypothetical village has no centralized currency, and instead employs a simple barter system. The villagers, tired of the inefficiency of simple barter, but wary of a central bank issuing currency, adopt a decentralized accounting system around units of measurement called VillageCoin, and write down all transfers in a public led...

With increasing adoption of internet-banking and mobile-banking, an extensive network of branches is no longer necessary for banks. Are bank branches headed for extinction? Changing Face of Banking Change is inevitable. Before the invention of ATMs, the teller was an important person at the bank. Now verifying your account balance, counting your money and handing it to you is done by machines. Machines do this more quickly, more accurately and at a lower cost compared to your tellers. A similar paradigm shift seems to be happening within bank branches. Increased adoption of internet-banking and mobile-banking have reduced the competitive advantage that an extensive network of branches can provide. The South Korean Example Banks are risk averse and typically slower than firms in other sectors when implementing new technology. However, nothing can stop the march of technology, resulting in changes to how firms across the world, including banks, conduct business. Acc...