There are some distinct advantages to Bitcoin that you do not get with any other currency or transactional medium.
The first is convenience. With fiat currency, debit and credit cards for example, there are limits to how much one can transfer and sometimes even where one can transfer value. Not so with Bitcoin. One can transfer any quantity to anywhere in the world, no questions asked. There is that freedom to send and receive Bitcoin without having to submissively report one’s transaction or undergo any bureaucracy or justify one’s own business.
Cost of using Bitcoin. The cost of sending Bitcoin is decreasing and there is no cost to receiving Bitcoin. In addition with some wallets one can nominate the level of fees one wishes to pay depending on the urgency of the transaction. Higher fees encourage faster confirmation of the transaction and are unrelated to the quantity of the transfer. The fee can be the same for transferring 100 Bitcoins as it does to send a fraction of a Bitcoin. In addition there are merchant processers that convert Bitcoin into fiat currency and deposit funds directly into a merchant’s bank account. These are generally with lower fees that say with PayPal for example.
With credit cards and PayPal reversals and chargebacks can cause headaches for merchants as both those services tend to favour the buyer regardless of the circumstances, with Bitcoin there is much less risk to merchants in that a Bitcoin transaction is irreversible thereby protecting the merchant from fraudulent chargebacks and reversals. This makes it ideal for merchants to accept Bitcoin and reduces their costs and losses as a result.
Bitcoin users are fully responsible for their asset or currency. Any spend of bitcoin by a user should be preceded by due diligence especially when dealing with a new merchant as once the Bitcoin has been transferred, there is no come back. You NEVER give out your Private Keys to your Bitcoin wallet. Your Private Keys to your wallet are like your account number and password to your bank account. Anyone who hass them has full access to the contents of your wallet and can empty it out and there is no way to recover your Bitcoin. Only your Public Keys should be used to receive Bitcoin.
The structure of the blockchain means that all transactions are transparent. True it is only encrypted keys and there are no names, or other ID to identify the owner of any particular Public Key. However, it does allow for complete trust as once a transaction has been confirmed and completed it cannot be changed and no one individual or organization can control or manipulate or change the blockchain once the block is completed.
Is it possible for users to collude against Bitcoin? The short answer is no. For example, double spending is not possible. Without being technical, once a spend is entered it then effectively blocks any duplication of than spend. The spend is recorded as have been completed and so cannot be done again although many attempts are still made by the ever optimistic.
In order to make any change in the blockchain protocols and overwhelming majority of the miners and or administrators are required in order to adopt a proposed change. This occurred, for example with the introduction of Bitcoin cash (BCH) and a new coin was created. This has occurred several time (Bitcoin Gold is another example) but this activity is somewhat complex takes months to organise and rarely is successful.
The question is often asked, is Bitcoin vulnerable to quantum computing? All crypto currencies will be vulnerable to quantum computing.
“A quantum computer is a device that performs quantum computing. They are different from binary digital electronic computers based on transistors. Whereas common digital computing requires that the data be encoded into binary digits (bits), each of which is always in one of two definite states (0 or 1), quantum computation uses quantum bits, which can be in superpositions of states. “
Wikipedia
Basically quantum computers are exceedingly fast compared to existing computers and whereas it would be impossible to crack an encryption key with the present day computer, it is considered theoretically possible fort a quantum computer to be abler to crack such a code due to the billions of combinations it would be able to perform in just a few seconds.
However by the same token, if and when quantum computers do emerge then cryptocurrency keys would likely be developed using a quantum computer making it impossible even for a quantum computer to crack the code. This is therefore not something one should immediately be concerned with.
This article is for information purposes only and is not to be construed as financial information for any purposes such as investment or speculation and it is the responsibility of the reader to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any of the information provided. We recommend that you consult with a licensed, qualified investment advisor before making any investment decisions.