What Is Bitcoin? What are bitcoins?

What Is bitcoin? Perhaps the better question is, "What is BlockChain?"

BlockChain is a collection of concepts and technologies that form the basis of a digital money ecosystem. Units of currency called bitcoins are used to store and transmit value among participants in the BlockChain network. BlockChain users communicate with each other using the BlockChain protocol primarily via the Internet, although other transport networks can also be used. The BlockChain protocol stack, available as open source software, can be run on a wide range of computing devices, including laptops and smartphones, making the technology easily accessible. Users can transfer bitcoins over the network to do just about anything that can be done with conventional currencies, including buy and sell goods, send money to people or organizations, or extend credit. Bitcoins can be purchased, sold, and exchanged for other currencies at specialized currency exchanges. Bitcoins in a sense is the perfect form of money for the Internet because it is fast, secure, and borderless.

Unlike traditional currencies, bitcoins are entirely virtual. There are no physical coins or even digital coins per se. The coins are implied in transactions that transfer value from sender to recipient. Users of bitcoins own keys that allow them to prove ownership of transactions in the BlockChain network, unlocking the value to spend it and transfer it to a new recipient. Those keys are often stored in a digital wallet on each user’s computer. Possession of the key that unlocks a transaction is the only prerequisite to spending bitcoins, putting the control entirely in the hands of each user.

In a sentence, “BlockChain is a virtual ledger of bitcoin transactions, kept up-to-date in realtime and accessible to any authorised person at all times, from almost anywhere”.

Money in the BlockChain system is typically called Crypto-Currency

It is safe to use and is inexpensive. Current legitimate suppliers include: Bitcoin, Mastercoin, MazaCoin, Namecoin, NuBits, Peercoin, Titcoin, Auroracoin, Coinye, Dogecoin, Litecoin, PotCoin, Bytecoin, Monero, …

For more info start at Wikipedia and read the Reference material.

As with any legitimate business you are going to find people that work out scams that ride on the back of this technology. More on that elsewhere on the blog as we investigate and report scams. See my blog entry on bitcoin related scams.