(Newswire.net — October 24, 2017) —On Friday morning, October 20, Bitcoin was valued at $6,060 at Bitfinex – a crypto-currency exchange trading and currency-storage platform based out of Hong Kong.
The current value of the Bitcoin currency is $ 5839.00, according to the official Bitcoin calculator on Google’s search engine, but the site Bitcoin.com says that experts expect the value of the most famous cryptocurrency will reach $ 10,000 very soon.
Bitcoin is a global cryptocurrency and digital payment system, called the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central repository or single administrator.
This currency was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009.
Transactions can take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.
Except Bitcoin there are numerous cryptocurrencies that have been made since 2009. The digital currencies inspired by Bitcoin are collectively called altcoins.
In 2011 Harlie Lee, an MIT graduate and former Google engineer launched Litecoin. Ripple (XRP) was launched in 2012, Dash or Darkcoin in 2014, as well as Monero (XMR). Ethereum (ETH) launched in 2015, Zcash (ZEC) in 2016.
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, said in August of this year, to central banks around the world, that virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, are not a threat to the existing order.
She said that digital currencies are unlikely to replace traditional ones, as they are “too volatile, too risky, too energy intensive and because the underlying technologies are not yet scalable.”
But Lagarde added that for 20 years the situation could change, and digital currencies could become safer and more reliable, especially in less stable regions.