What is cryptocurrency ?

Digital currency can be used to buy goods and services worldwide without any limitations on where you reside.
It acts just like a Fiat currency but in decentralized way.

***The term Decentralized means that No single person or institution can control the bitcoin network and that makes it powerful

Now here are some headline news and facts about what is happening in the news when it comes to cryptocurrencies

The Arizona Senate passed a bill on Feb. 8 2018 to allow residents in the state to pay their taxes with cryptocurrencies
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is aware that “virtual currency” may be used to pay for goods or services, or held for investment.
Virtual currency is a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value.
In some environments, it operates like “real” currency-- i.e., the coin and paper money of the United States or of any other country that is designated as legal tender.
Bitcoin getting a boost after the US Senate discussed the possible introduction of new laws to combat the volatility of cryptocurrency and stop digital currencies from being used by scammers and terrorists.
WWW.OVERSTOCK.COM You can now buy thousands of Overstock.com products with Bitcoins!
WWW.GYFT.COM Use Bitcoin to shop for hundreds of gift cards. Instant delivery. No fees.
And much more news to come

Bitcoin Explained for Beginners

Bitcoin was invented as a peer-to-peer system for online payments that does not require a trusted central authority.
Since its inception in 2008, Bitcoin has grown into a technology, a currency, an investment vehicle, and a community of users.
In this guide we hope to explain what Bitcoin is and how it works as well as describe how you can use it to improve your life.

What is Bitcoin?

Since anything digital can be copied over and over again, the hard part about implementing a digital payment system is making sure that nobody spends the same money more than once.
Traditionally, this is done by having a trusted central authority (like PayPal) that verifies all of the transactions.
The core innovation that makes Bitcoin special is that it uses consensus in a massive peer-to-peer network to verify transactions. This results in a system where payments are non-reversible, accounts cannot be frozen, and transaction fees are much lower.

Where do bitcoins come from?

We go more in-depth about this on the page about mining, but here’s a very simple explanation:
Some users put their computers to work verifying transactions in the peer-to-peer network mentioned above.
These users are rewarded with new bitcoins proportional to the amount of computing power they donate to the network.

Who controls Bitcoin?

As we mentioned above, there is no central person or central authority in charge of Bitcoin.
Various programmers donate their time developing the open source Bitcoin software and can make
changes subject to the approval of lead developer Gavin Andresen.
The individual miners then choose whether to install the new version of the software or stick to the old one,
essentially “voting” with their processing power. It is in the miners’ best interest to only accept changes that are good for the Bitcoin currency in the long run. These checks and balances make it difficult for anyone to manipulate Bitcoin.

How to get started with Bitcoin

The best way to learn about Bitcoin is to buy some and make some transactions with it from one of the vendors tht accept BTC as payment.

Here is one of the most popular wallet to keep your bitcoins in.

https://www.coinbase.com/join/53c8178bbb72e3eac5000003

Good luck in your journey to a new financial freedom