This week we talk about what Bitcoin is, how it works in theory, how it works in practice, and what the criticisms are.
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Crypto
- Disclosure – I own 0.00666 Bitcoins
- What is a block chain
- What’s a transaction
- On chain
- Off chain
- Why is cryptocurrancy a thing?
- Decentralized – No one entity owns it
- Universal – Not tied to fiat currencies
- Private – Can’t be tracked and tied to your personal identity
- How’s that worked?
- As of April 3, 2022 the top 10,000 addresses or about 0.03% (0.0277794%) own about 60% (59.16%) meaning the remaining 99.97% own the remaining 40%
- Until China banned mining in 2021 60-70% of all mining was in China
- Universal – Can get around sanctions
- Private – KYC
- Fees on transactions can easily match Paypal, Stripe, or Credit Cards
- Criticisms
- Volatility – It’s gambling
- It’s insecure – By 2017 data breaches resulted in about 1 million bitcoin being stolen from exchanges
- An estimated 20% of bitcoin have been lost due to people losing their private keys
- Crime – Estimated to be about 3%, but transcations still happen between KYC exchanges and Russian black market exchanges
- Climate
Sources
– https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/bitcoin-who-owns-it-who-mines-it-whos-breaking-law
– https://bitinfocharts.com/
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Design
– https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/09/20/bitcoins-impacts-on-climate-and-the-environment/
– https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952
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