{"id":43362,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-bitcoin-boom-what-your-business-needs-to-know-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:02","slug":"the-bitcoin-boom-what-your-business-needs-to-know-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-bitcoin-boom-what-your-business-needs-to-know-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bitcoin boom: What your business needs to know – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s often said that new entrepreneurial opportunities emerge from economic adversity, but it\u2019s rare for hard times to explode an idea in quite the manner Bitcoin has benefited from.<\/p>\n
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The independent digital currency was trading at just $20 in February. And then the Cyprus economic crisis hit, prompting people to pull their cash from the failing banks and into Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
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As a result, the value of a Bitcoin is nearing $200. Heady days indeed for a currency that was only worth around a cent in 2010. Bitcoin is going mainstream.<\/p>\n
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But what exactly is Bitcoin and why should small businesses in Australia care about it?<\/p>\n
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Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency that allows people to pay each other directly without the need for a financial institution middle man. Payments can be made anonymously in a way, worryingly for governments, that can\u2019t be tracked, traded or taxed \u2013 a kind of free market bonanza that cuts down on the hassle and cost of dealing with banks.<\/p>\n
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The concept was created by a mysterious figure (or group) called Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Initially only known about by a select band of hackers and tech geeks, the concept has rapidly taken hold and is now being embraced by some businesses as a payment method, alongside standard credit card transactions and the likes of PayPal.<\/p>\n
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Of course, a currency is only worth something if it\u2019s relatively scarce. To create Bitcoins, you need a highly complex computer algorithm that produces the currency very slowly, with a cap of 21 million Bitcoins to be churned out by 2140.<\/p>\n
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Select bands of Bitcoin \u2018miners\u2019 have emerged \u2013 Ozcoin Pooled Mining, based in Perth, claims it is the third-largest Bitcoin miner in the world \u2013 but most users obtain the currency through Bitcoin exchanges, such as MT. Gox.<\/p>\n
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Physical Bitcoins have been created, but the currency is typically traded digitally, stored on a user\u2019s hard drive in a virtual wallet.<\/p>\n
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Around 11 million Bitcoins are currently in circulation, with 25 new ones created every 10 minutes. The total value is now closing in on the $2 billion mark, more than the currency stock of 20 separate countries.<\/p>\n
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This valuation increase is illustrated by the fact that US programmers who swapped 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas in 2010 \u2013 at around a cent a piece \u2013 would\u2019ve paid $1.7 million for the pizzas in today\u2019s prices.<\/p>\n
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