Digital or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have taken off in recent years, spurred on by a sharp rise in the use of the internet for currency transfer.They do not exist in a physical form.They are housed purely online.But how do they work?If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the disruptive new wave of currency, as well as the what you need to think about it before diving into it, we’ve got it covered.Being the most prominent form of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin will be our key focus.Bitcoin was launched in the late 2000s by individuals operating under the alias “Satoshi Nakamoto”.In essence, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that can be used for a variety of online transactions.No “middle-men” such as financial institutions are involved in the currency transfer and it is decentralised.Bitcoins can be created or “mined” by users with powerful computers solving a freely available, but complex, mathematical formula.The Bitcoins are then shared, however this does not mean that an infinite amount can be generated, with the protocol limited to generating no more than 21 million Bitcoins.

Just like dollars and cents, Bitcoins can also be divided into smaller parts – the smallest amount being a Satoshi, which is a one-hundred millionth of a Bitcoin.litecoin android minerHow can records be kept with a decentralised currency?litecoin cpu guideThey’re stored in an online ledger called the “blockchain”.bitcoin joseph leeThe “blockchain” has a record of all Bitcoin – or any cryptocurrency – transactions that have ever occurred, which is freely accessible to anyone online.bitcoin seizedFor obvious reasons, this ledger only includes numbers and no personal details ever need to be listed in a Bitcoin transaction – essentially also offering some advantages of security depending on the transactions.ethereum price usd coinbase

As a relatively new trend, the world is still getting to grips with Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency.bitcoin miner taps dads power plantThere are a number of things you need to consider before exploring its use.“One significant consideration is that its value is volatile.Over the past few years Bitcoin has traded for as low as US$200-300 a Bitcoin and as high as over $US1000 per Bitcoin,” Crowe Horwath adviser Wai Choong Chan said.“In addition, there are concerns over how securely Bitcoins are stored in Bitcoin exchanges as evidenced by the hacking of several Bitcoin exchanges and the loss of Bitcoins over the years.” “On the other hand, transacting with Bitcoin is generally cheaper than traditional non-cash means such as credit/debit cards or wire transfers.” Being a peer-to-peer service, transactions can also be simplified across borders, with a quick processing turnaround and no high transaction fees to burden users.

There are a number of tax considerations for businesses and individuals trading Bitcoin.“As a business if you’re getting paid in Bitcoin, it becomes a consideration for tax,” said Chan.“It is considered a barter arrangement and you will have to pay tax and GST on the Australian dollar equivalent of the Bitcoin received.” According to the Australian Taxation Office “the value in Australian dollars will be the fair market value which can be obtained from a reputable bitcoin exchange.” The ATO outline a number of records you should be keeping for each transaction: If you’re interested in diving into the world of Bitcoin, then the next step will naturally be to buy a few.These can be purchased from Bitcoin exchanges or via online marketplaces.You will also want to consider purchasing something known as a Bitcoin “wallet”, which is essentially a software tool which works to protect your supply.However before you move forward, also ensure that you thoroughly research the topic and contact your Crowe Horwath adviser for expert advice.

Come learn about Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.Log in with Facebook to find out By creating a Meetup account, you agree to the Terms of Service Recent Meetups June 8 · 7:00 PM Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup 12 Members | 5.001 At this Meetup, Jonathan Baha'i will speak about his new venture Peerplays.Based in an ex-military nuclear bunker in Truro, Nova Scotia, Peerplays (https://... Learn more January 12 · 7:00 PM Let's get together and talk about the future of money!4 Members | 5.001 Whether you're a Bitcoin cryptocurrency Blockchain super nerd or a noob looking to learn about a revolutionary new technology, you are welcome to join us!What's new New comment Jonathan B. commented on Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup Group Review Jonathan B. wrote a group review New RSVP Ivan RSVPed for Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup New Member Dakota L. joined New RSVP Dakota L. RSVPed for Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup New RSVP Rob T. RSVPed for Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup New Member Rob T. joined New RSVP Robyn W. RSVPed for Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup New Member Robyn W. joined New RSVP Joel RSVPed for Learn about Peerplays, a local Blockchain startup

I have been hearing about bit coins a lot lately (here and here) and so I decided to check them out and give a basic overview of how to get a bit coin system running on Ubuntu.It was much more confusing then I thought it would be but I eventually got it working.Of course I immediately saw a number of interesting possibilities, which I will discuss at the end.First, the easiest way to get started is to download the pre-compiled binary files for linux (available here).The gui for linux isn't working at this time because ubuntu doesn't have wxwidgets2.9 yet but the command line works great.Once you have the binary files downloaded extract them:Then make a bitcoin directory and bitcoin.conf file:With the directory created and the configuration file made go ahead and start the bitcoin server:Once the server starts it will take quite a while to download the chain of blocks from the other bitcoin peers (for info on what this means check out this).

It took my computer about 2-3 hours.Once the server has finished loading the blocks you can download a client and have it request work from the server and start computing.To check the status of your server you can run the following commands (list of commands here):This gives you information about how many blocks you've downloaded etc... I checked bitcoin block exploror to see how many blocks there were (129,000+ when I did this).I used this a lot because bitcoind never seemed to give me any output so I never knew what it was doing.As far as the actual bitcoin calculation there are a couple of ways to do it:I used pyminer because it is simple, the code is human readable, and it works with little to no hassle.You could also have bitcoind compute directly by editing ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf and replacing:Then when you run bitcoind -daemon it will also be computing bitcoins.The added benefit of doing things this way is you could edit the bitcoin.conf file to allow other ip addresses.