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Recently, the value of Bitcoin, which enjoyed great success last year, has continued to fall. After all the bitcoins were stolen from Mt.Gox, a victim held up a sign and asked, "Mt.Gox, can you compensate us?"
The operator of the world's largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox announced on the evening of February 28 that it had applied for bankruptcy protection to the Tokyo District Court on the same day because all the Bitcoin on the trading platform was stolen, and the case has been accepted. According to the trading market on the 28th, the loss was about 467 million US dollars. Isn't this a virtual version of an old-fashioned bank robbery? But what is Bitcoin? When we can buy things with paper money, why do so many people cling to it?
Anonymity is very popular among drug dealers. You cannot tell how many hands a banknote has passed through. In movies, drug dealers always like to carry bundles of banknotes to trade money in exchange for cash in order to avoid being tracked down by judicial authorities. What if people can use the Internet to create an anonymous currency without an issuing agency, government or central bank involvement, and can be used like cash?
Although it was not the original intention of its creator, Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto, to use Bitcoin for illegal activities, the history of Bitcoin's rise will never get rid of the notoriety of illegal transactions and money laundering. In February 2011, two years after the rise of Bitcoin, a website called "Silk Road" quietly emerged. Sellers in online stores advertised a large number of illegal goods - marijuana, ecstasy, heroin, and only allowed transactions using Bitcoin.
This currency is generated by running a specific "mining program" on millions of computers in every corner of the world. In addition to taking advantage of the anonymity of Bitcoin, the website also uses a technology called "onion routing" (Tor) to make tracking more difficult. New York Senator Charles Shuman once said that Bitcoin is "an online form of money laundering" and the Silk Road company was shut down.
The thief may make history. The drug dealers have just been shut down, and hackers have also joined the bitcoin circulation business. "I want to die now," said bitcoin holder Alinwen when he found out that hackers had stolen bitcoins worth about $500,000. In June 2011, Alinwen became the victim of the first large-scale bitcoin theft in recorded history. Before that, bitcoin thefts were not uncommon. Who stole the bitcoins from Mt.Gox this time? 700,000 bitcoins need to be cashed out, and it will take more than a month to sell 20,000 bitcoins a day. If the criminals can get away this time, they will undoubtedly make history.
The biggest attraction of Bitcoin to financial speculators is its scarcity. The production of Bitcoin requires extremely powerful computing power, and the difficulty of mining increases as the number of Bitcoins mined increases, until the 21 millionth Bitcoin is mined.
Drug dealers, hackers, financial speculators... There are many people with stories behind Bitcoin. The father of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is also legendary. After proposing the outline of Bitcoin in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto remained silent for a while. In December 2010, when Bitcoin gradually became popular, he quietly left and disappeared from the Internet. At first, people judged that he might be a Japanese based on his name, but later people thought that it was difficult for one person to have such wisdom, and it should be an organization. In order to find out what country Satoshi Nakamoto is from, the young Stefan Thomas searched more than 500 speeches of Satoshi Nakamoto on the forum, did various data analysis and reasoning, and finally judged that he was from the UK.
Government regulation is on the agenda. Bitcoin was originally designed to be free from regulation by any government or central agency. But some Bitcoin supporters say that the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox seems to mean that Bitcoin will have to accept some form of regulation if it wants to continue to survive and prosper. "At this point, regulating Bitcoin is inevitable," said Todd Williams, a stockbroker and Bitcoin investor. "Businesses related to Bitcoin can be put on hold for now, but regulation of a Bitcoin company similar to a bank is imminent."
According to a report by The Atlantic on February 26, it is reported that Mt.Gox has received a subpoena from the New York federal prosecutor and is also under investigation in Japan. More and more participants in the Bitcoin industry need to accept this reality - the marginal areas of the Bitcoin industry do provide convenience for evading legal responsibilities, and the process of escaping regulation is inevitably accompanied by inevitable twists and turns and resistance. "Nowadays, all Bitcoin exchanges are considering establishing a set of trading rules that are in line with the actual situation of their own companies." Eddie, founder of Bitcoin incubator Seedcoin, said. At present, all Bitcoin trading platforms are seriously considering and implementing compliance requirements based on local regulatory rules. MexBT, a Mexican Bitcoin trading platform invested by Seedcoin, has currently devoted a considerable part of its resources to compliance-related activities, most of which are self-regulatory activities based on the anticipation of potential concerns of local authorities. Falcon Global Capital, a Bitcoin investment fund company, has promised its clients to store Bitcoin in the safest place, and it also stated that the Bitcoin Fund will comply with US securities trading rules.
Eddie believes that the exchange between Bitcoin and traditional currencies needs to adhere to the principle of openness and transparency to protect the interests of Bitcoin holders. "This requires the integration of efforts from multiple parties to regain people's trust in Bitcoin through standardized security practices." The larger the transaction scale and the higher the liquidity, the more transparent the Bitcoin platform is needed. Industry experts believe that "the floating exchange rate between Bitcoin and traditional currencies also needs to be regularly reviewed by authoritative agencies."
It is reported that a relevant bill has been submitted to the California Senate. Once the bill is passed, Bitcoin will become a legal currency. The New York financial regulator has also promised to introduce a Bitcoin-related regulatory plan before the end of the year. Other countries such as Singapore have also stated that they may impose taxes on Bitcoin in the future. As early as January, the Irish Bitcoin Association called on the central bank to supervise Bitcoin to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Of course, this does not mean that all Bitcoin supporters agree to introduce government regulation. The U.S. Congress has warned that a patchwork of financial crime and national regulatory agencies will make the Bitcoin environment worse.
Industry insiders analyzed that after Mt. Gox's bankruptcy, other Bitcoin exchange and holding companies will become stronger, "just like the proverb 'A calm sea hardly breeds a good sailor'." Eddie said.
Bitcoin Fun Facts Sheriff Gets Salary in Bitcoin As Bitcoin continues to make headlines, more and more people are starting to become aware of it and start using it. The police chief of Vicco, a small town in Kentucky with less than 300 people, also made the news when he asked to receive his salary in Bitcoin, and the town agreed. This became the first instance of a government entity using electronic currency for payment.
Pay university tuition with Bitcoin The University of Nicosia in Cyprus, Greece, has added a new Master of Science degree in digital currency, so it is natural for it to accept Bitcoin as payment for tuition. Cyprus is now also committed to becoming the world's Bitcoin trading center.
Throwing away the hard drive and losing 7,500 bitcoins Here is a sad story. An unlucky guy named James once had 7,500 bitcoins stored in a hard drive. During a general cleaning, he threw away the hard drive without hesitation, and these virtual assets were thrown into the trash can with him, and could never be found again.
In July 2013, Austin Craig and Bessie Bingham of Provo, Utah, decided to experiment with using Bitcoin as the only currency in their lives for the first 90 days of their marriage. They also filmed a documentary for their followers and regularly updated their blog.
Billionaire Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Airlines) loves new things, and his new project has begun to use this emerging currency. In his millionaire space travel club "Virgin Galactic", Bitcoin payments have begun to be accepted. The mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto may also be among these space travel candidates.
Plastic Surgery with Bitcoin Vanity, a plastic surgery clinic in Miami, Florida, accepts Bitcoin for all its services, including abdominal liposuction and breast augmentation surgeries.
Pizza bought with 10,000 Bitcoins On May 22, 2010, a guy named Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to pay a British guy 10,000 Bitcoins (probably enough to buy a few Papa John's stores) to order a pizza from his local Papa John's. As evidence, Laszlo uploaded the above photo, and the first real-world Bitcoin transaction was born. As the value of Bitcoin rises, the value of that pizza is theoretically getting more and more expensive.
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