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WHAT IS BITCOIN?

Bitcoin is an online currency operating as a peer-to-peer network. Miners produce, and sell bitcoins, and the price rises as more bitcoins are bought. The commodity 's price has skyrocketed recently, rising over $1000 per bitcoin between 4/25/17-5/25/17.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the anonymous name of the creator(s) of bitcoin. The currency was created in January 2009. Nakamoto's motivation for creating bitcoin was to create a currency which was not controlled by a centralized body such as a government susceptible to turmoil, but rather by a computer program. As such, bitcoin is impervious to foreign exchange rates, and can be used for international trade without the requirement of changing currencies.
The currency is generated through bitcoin mining. Bitcoins are “mined” by solving mathematical tasks which increase with difficulty as the number of bitcoins grows. As of the time of this post, approximately 16,350,000 bitcoins exist. To put the rate of growth in perspective, there were 16,000,000 bitcoins in circulation in 11/2016. The number of total bitcoins which may exist within bitcoin's network is capped at 21,000,000.  When a mathematician produces a hash by cracking the mathematical puzzle from a certain “block” of the software, they are presented with 25 bitcoins, and have the option of selling or exchanging the bitcoin for goods. While a government controls the value of a currency by printing, or declining to print the currency, bitcoin is only regulated by the success of the miners solving the mathematical blocks with hashes.
The increase in complexity that comes with each hash solved requires faster processors which will not overheat while mining the data. Demand for processors capable of mining bitcoins has led to the success of several companies such as bitmain, a processor developer.
In 2015, over 100,000 merchants accepted bitcoin. The number has only grown since. Some of the more notable companies accepting bitcoin currently are Paypal, and Expedia. There are also debit cards that utilize bitcoin to fund transactions with merchants who do not accept the currency.

Trading bitcoin on the stock exchange is possible through GBTC. GBTC is a bitcoin investment trust with a market cap of $530.1 million. As companies perfect the payment processing system with bitcoin, wall street may see more companies dealing in the currency come public, as the demand from small and large businesses alike to process transactions with this growing currency increases.

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