Bought in 2009, currency’s rise in value saw small investment turn into enough to buy an apartment in a wealthy area of Oslo Bitcoin: what you need to know This article was originally published on 29 October 2013.Due to a technical fault, it has been republished here, on a new page.Norwegian man discovers $27 bitcoin investment now worth more than enough to buy an apartment.Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images Bought in 2009, currency’s rise in value saw small investment turn into enough to buy an apartment in a wealthy area of Oslo Bitcoin: what you need to know This article was originally published on 29 October 2013.The meteoric rise in bitcoin has meant that within the space of four years, one Norwegian man’s $27 investment turned into a forgotten $886,000 windfall.Kristoffer Koch invested 150 kroner ($26.60) in 5,000 bitcoins in 2009, after discovering them during the course of writing a thesis on encryption.He promptly forgot about them until widespread media coverage of the anonymous, decentralised, peer-to-peer digital currency in April 2013 jogged his memory.

Bitcoins are stored in encrypted wallets secured with a private key, something Koch had forgotten.After eventually working out what the password could be, Koch got a pleasant surprise: “It said I had 5,000 bitcoins in there.Measuring that in today’s rates it’s about NOK5m ($886,000),” Koch told NRK.Silk Road fluctuations In April 2013, the value of bitcoin peaked at $266 before crashing to a low of $50 soon after.Since then, bitcoin has seen large fluctuations in its value, most recently following the seizure of online drugs marketplace Silk Road, plummeting before jumping $30 in one day to a high of $197 in October.Koch exchanged one fifth of his 5,000 bitcoins, generating enough kroner to buy an apartment in Toyen, one of the Norwegian capital’s wealthier areas.Two ways to acquire bitcoins Customers line-up to use the world’s first ever permanent bitcoin ATM at a coffee shop in Vancouver, British Columbia.Photograph: Andy Clark/Reuters Photograph: Andy Clark / Reuters/REUTERS Typically bitcoins are bought using traditional currency from a bitcoin “exchanger”, although due to strict anti-money laundering controls, the process can can be tricky.

A user can then withdraw those bitcoins by sending them back to an exchanger like Mt Gox, the best known bitcoin exchange, in return for cash.However, bitcoin is gaining more and more traction within the physical world too.bitcoin silver bullionIt is now possible to actually spend bitcoins without exchanging them for traditional currency first in a few British pubs, including the Pembury Tavern in Hackney, London, for instance.litecoin price evolutionOn 29 October, the world’s first bitcoin ATM also went online in Vancouver, Canada, which scans a user’s palm before letting them buy or sell bitcoins for cash.armory without bitcoin coreA small group of hardcore users also generate extra bitcoins by “mining” for them – a process that requires computers to perform the calculations needed to make the digital currency work, in exchange for a share of the built-in inflation.bbc bitcoin arrest

Mining is a time-consuming and expensive endeavour due to the way the currency is designed.Each subsequent bitcoin mined is more complex than the previous one, requiring more computational time and therefore investment through the electricity and computer hardware required.bitcoin inr graphIn August, Germany recognised bitcoin as a “unit of account”, allowing the country to tax users or creators of the digital currencyethereum development environmentNorwegian cashes in Bitcoins he forgot about to buy Oslo apartment Fluctuation in online currency Bitcoin allows Norwegian man to cash in four-year-old investment to buy apartment in Oslo A Norwegian man who purchased 150 kroner (£16) worth of Bitcoins and then forgot about it for four years was able to buy an apartment in Oslo thanks to the massive appreciation of the virtual currency.

Kristoffer Koch invested in a small sum in the recently created Bitcoins – a means of payment over the internet – in 2009.Mr Koch, now 29 and working as an engineer, only remembered the investment in April when he read an article about the soaring value of Bitcoins.His 5,000 Bitcoins were worth around £429,000.After spending a full day trying to remember his password, he then cashed in 1.1 million kroner (£116,000) by selling part of his newly acquired fortune.After deducting 28 per cent in taxes, the money was enough for the down payment and restoration of a flat worth 2.6 million kroner in central Oslo, one of the world's most expensive cities."Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that they would have soared like this," Mr Koch said."It's bizarre, these psychological reflexes that make us attach a value to something that doesn't have any in itself."Bitcoins can be exchanged for real money or used to purchase goods and services online.Users are attracted to them because transactions are anonymous and the Bitcoins are not controlled by any central bank or organisation.

Its value can fluctuate wildly however.The world's first Bitcoin ATM was due to go live in Vancouver, Canada, on Tuesday.Norway News » World News » Europe » Technology » Currency » Ice cool surfers The Shepherd's Realm Norway by kayak Nobel Peace Prize winners: from 1901-2014 How to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize Royal Marines on Arctic training Freeze frame Woody Allen's 30 best one-liners Comedy Martin Chilton selects 30 great one-liners from the comedian and film star Woody Allen The best British political insults Culture A hilarious history of political insults and putdowns, from Churchill to Corbyn Culture stars who died in 2016 We celebrate and remember the culture stars who have passed away in 2016 US Presidents: 30 great one-liners Books Great quotes from White House incumbents: will Donald Trump be joining them?100 funny jokes by 100 comedians Comedy One hundred whip-smart wisecracks History's greatest conspiracy theories From global warming to 9/11, Shakespeare to Elvis, Diana to JFK, peak oil to Roswell, conspiracy theories abound.