What is bitcoin?

Roger Walter

Reading — Advanced Level
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Read the text and answer the questions


Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash. It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.

Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products and services. Research produced by the University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017, there were 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.

Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions, its high electricity consumption, price volatility, thefts from exchanges, and the possibility that bitcoin is an economic bubble. Bitcoin has also been used as an investment, although several regulatory agencies have issued investor alerts about bitcoin.
Source: Wikipedia
  1. What is bitcoin?

  2. What is the blockchain?

  3. Who invented bitcoin?

  4. What can bitcoin not be exchanged for?

  5. What has bitcoin not been criticized for?

Discussion

Practice your writing skills by discussing the questions below

  1. Do you think that bitcoin is better than conventional currency? Why or why not?

  2. Have you ever used a cryptocurrency? If so, what for?

  3. Do you think that cryptocurrency is the future of money? Why or why not?

    Roger Walter

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