Bitcoin: What You Need to Know

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Just this week, Tesla (TSLA) he said he would soon accept Bitcoin as payment for his vehicles and revealed he had bought $ 1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency as part of his cash stakes. In the meantime, Uber (UBER) i Mastercard (MA) he also said they plan to start accepting Bitcoin. And BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the United States, whose history dates back to the founding of Alexander Hamilton by the Bank of New York in 1784, announced that it had formed a digital asset unit.

So, if you’ve been ignoring Bitcoin thinking it might just be a financial fad, now is the time to start paying attention. This is what you need to know.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency created in 2009 by an unknown person who uses the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are anonymous and are done without intermediaries or intermediaries.

You can’t physically use bitcoin, it’s a digital currency. And it is decentralized, that is, it is not controlled by any bank or government.

At this very moment it can be is used everywhere from Overstock.com to PayPal, and this list is expanding rapidly.
Many people also see bitcoin as a good investment. And that has certainly been true this week, given that Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $ 49,000 this week.

Where can I buy bitcoins?

Bitcoin is 100% digital. Markets called “bitcoin exchanges” allow people to buy or sell bitcoins using different traditional currencies. Coinbase is a leading exchange, along with Coinmama, CEX.IO and Gemini.

Where do I keep my bitcoin?

Bitcoin is stored in a digital wallet, which is in the cloud or on the computer. It’s like having a virtual bank account. But unlike bank accounts, stored bitcoin is not insured by the FDIC.

Wait, what has Elon Musk got to do with this?

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has a history of supporting tweeting assets and sending their value up, and the richest man in the world is a big bitcoin booster.

“I think [bitcoin] it’s about to gain widespread acceptance by people of conventional finance, ”Musk said in a recent interview on the audio-only social application Clubhouse.

Shortly after formalizing Tesla’s relationship with cryptography, corporate ads began to flow.

Is bitcoin safe?

The cryptocurrency is highly volatile and therefore very risky. For example, in January the value of Bitcoin rose to $ 42,000, fell to $ 30,000, and then rose again to $ 40,000, all over the course of a week.

And there are some dangers inherent in a digital currency: a hacked server, a deleted file, or a lost password can mean that funds are lost forever.

-— Paul R. Monica, Chris Isidore, Tal Yellin, and CNN’s Hanna Ziady contributed to this report.

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