What Bitcoin Is And How To Make Money With Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. Bitcoin (also BTC) has value and the price can increase and decrease anytime. This makes it highly volatile and to some extent, unpredictable.

The system enables payments to be sent between users without passing through a central authority, such as a bank or payment gateway. It is created and held electronically. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by computers all around the world, using software.

It was the first example of what we today call cryptocurrencies, a growing asset class that shares some characteristics of traditional currencies, with verification based on cryptography.

Who created it

A pseudonymous software developer going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin in 2008, as an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof.

Importance

Bitcoin can be used to pay for things electronically, if both parties are willing. In that sense, it’s like conventional dollars, euros, rands, or Naira, which are also traded digitally


Bitcoin is often described as an anonymous currency because it is possible to send and receive bitcoins without giving any personally identifying information. 


Decentralization

Bitcoin’s most important characteristic is that it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network. It is maintained by a group of volunteer coders(miners), and run by an open network of dedicated computers spread around the world. This attracts individuals and groups that are uncomfortable with the control that banks or government institutions have over their money.

Divisibility

The smallest unit of a bitcoin is called a satoshi. It is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001). This could conceivably enable microtransactions that traditional electronic money cannot.


How to get started with Bitcoin

First, to own a Bitcoin, you need a wallet where you can save it. The wallet is a digital purse to hold your Bitcoin. When you create a wallet, you will be given a login details to the wallet and you can then generate wallet address. It is with the wallet address that you can use in receiving Bitcoin when someone want to send Bitcoin to you. Bitcoin can also be stored offline.

Having said that, one of the best Bitcoin wallet and exchange provider in Nigeria and other parts of the world is Luno. With Luno you can buy Bitcoin directly from you bank with your ATM card and, you can also send exchange Bitcoin and send the money to you bank account directly from Luno.

Personally, I have been using Luno for over 2 years now and they are safe. To register with Luno, use this link: Register On Luno Here


How to make money with Bitcoin

To make money with Bitcoin, there are three options among others:


1. You can buy Bitcoin and leave it in your wallet, when the price of Bitcoin goes up, you make money. The disadvantage here is, when the price goes down you will lose money also. For example, at the beginning of 2017, Bitcoin price was around N480,000 but towards first week of December same year, it rose as high as N7,000,000. Also, as at January 2018, the price went down to N3,200,000. So here your income will be fluctuating in response to Bitcoin Price.


2. You can make money by investing in cloud mining platforms. Cloud mining company/platforms sell hashpower to the investors. And profits are generated daily base on the capital you invested. Profit here usually takes time to increase and hence patience is required. The disadvantage here is, there are lots of scammers out there in the name of cloud mining company. The only three I am very sure they are legit and real are Hashflare, Genesis Mining and Hashing24.com

Personally, I make use of Hashflare. Here one hashpower cost $2.2, so with about N10,000 you can start your investment journey with Hashflare.

Mining can also be done personally with your computer and mining hardwares.


3. The third and most profiting one is trading. Trading involves buying Bitcoin when the price is low and selling when it's high and, repeating the cycle. This can be done on a daily basis to earn daily income as I do. Trading ensures that you don't lose money when Bitcoin price is going down and, it guarantees daily profit for the professional traders. The profit here is usually massive and you can make as much as 15 to 20% daily profit. The disadvantage here is, you can lose money if you don't know when to buy or sell.

To learn more about trading, read more here: How to trade on Bitcoin and make daily profit


Credit: Tochukwu Dillion