Bitcoin is a crypto currency and a digital payment system invented by an unknown programmer, released as an open-source software in January 2009. Over 100,000 merchants accept bitcoins as payment. Bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services in legal market. Here’s a list of facts about bitcoins:
1. There’s a finite number of bitcoins
You would think that because there’s no need to physically print the bills, there could be an infinite number of bitcoins that exists but this would lead to devalue the currency. There are exactly 21,000,000 coins. By the year 2140 the last remaining bitcoin will be supposedly sold. Therefore, this fact is number 1 on our list of ‘facts about bitcoins’.
2. Losing a bitcoin wallet means – those bitcoins lost forever
The wallet stores the information necessary to transact bitcoins; if the wallet is lost then the bitcoins are no longer able to be spent. The bitcoins have unique keys and so if they’re lost with the wallet, they are removed from the circulation forever.
3. The FBI owns 15% of world’s bitcoins
When the US federal government raided the first online marketplace, it seized bitcoins worth $30 million which is 15% of the world’s bitcoin. Now these bitcoins are in auction to put them back in circulation without crashing their values.
4. A man threw away his hard drive with $4 million worth of bitcoins on it
In July 2013, a man named James Howell accidentally threw away his old hard drive which held his digital wallet with 7,500 bitcoins. In November 2013 these bitcoins worth more than $4 million.
5. 65 percent of the world’s bitcoins are inactive
It is observed that approximately 65% of bitcoins are bought, stored and never seen again. These are the inactive wallets that may either be simply lost or cash out. The regular transactions that keep the bitcoins network working are only happening on the remaining 35%.
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