What On Earth Are Bitcoins?

In the recent years, Bitcoin has captured the attention of many Singaporeans. We are gradually embracing the new wave of modern transactions – the rise of cryptocurrency! Despite its exposure, you may still be wondering what exactly it is.

BITCOIN DEFINITION

In its core, bitcoin belongs to an alternative type of payment system called cryptocurrency. It is a digital asset that enables you to conduct transactions outside of the mainstream financial infrastructures. Balances are securely stored using private and public keys. I am not referring to the metal keys that help open doors! Instead, these keys are linked through the mathematical encryption algorithms.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Image Credits: pixabay.com

One of the most challenging parts of sustaining a digital transaction is ensuring that nobody spends the “same bitcoin” more than once. As you can imagine, almost anything digital can be copied over and over again! Regulation is crucial to cryptocurrency. Traditionally, verification was done thru trusted central authorities (e.g., PayPal). What makes bitcoin special is its utilization of a huge peer-to-peer network to verify transactions. Bitcoin payments are non-reversible, transaction fees are significantly lower, and its corresponding accounts cannot be frozen.

BITCOIN FUNDAMENTALS

1. History: Its origin dates back to 2008 when it was created by developer Satoshi Nakamoto.

2. Operations: Transactions are fully transparent due to the publicly available ledge known as the “blockchain”.

3. Security: As mentioned above, a bitcoin transaction consists of a public key (i.e., known to everyone) and a private key (i.e., exclusive to the bitcoin user). You cannot spend coins without knowing its private key.

4. Purpose: Bitcoin provides a viable alternative to the dealings within mainstream financial infrastructures. It eliminates the hefty transaction fees and the transportation expenses.

BITCOIN MINING

The bitcoin network is only as strong as the people and institutions supporting it. It is not created by the simple copy and paste tool! Instead, you need to mine for the digital assets using extensive computers that solve complex equations. Bitcoin miners are crucial to the completion of transactions and the validation of genuine bitcoins.

Without bitcoin miners, no new coins will be brought into the circulation as no rewards would be given.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Sources:1, 2, 3, & 4

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The Future Of Money: No Paper Currencies And Plastic Cards

Money is an integral part of our lives. Its birth dates back to the beginning of the civilization. Now, money is viewed as a legal tender generally consisting of paper currency and coins. Time and technology paved a way for money to transform beyond its value. Interacting with money is far different from when we traded thousands of years ago.

In fact, a decade ago, I never thought that digital currency in the form of bitcoins will ever occur. Bitcoins can only be made by mining, which is done by solving complicated mathematical problems. Also, bitcoins are capped so that no one can ever create an unlimited supply of it.

Interestingly, the designers at a global design firm called Method envisioned the future of money in different ways. These are just three of their ideas:

1. MONEY AND PHYSIOLOGY

Method looked at what can happen when you connect your physical well-being to your purchases. They designed a toothbrush that would harvest hormonal data from one’s saliva twice a day. This said data would sync to your spending habits through an App. The App would give you an idea about the items you are buying and why you are buying them. Thus, this can help explain and monitor your spending.

2. MONEY WITH A PERSONALITY

Method took the futuristic concept further by give money a personality. Five employees were assigned with digital personalities such as Mindful, Jealous, Hedonistic, Adventurous, and Frugal. For example, the employee with the Adventurous personality would fork over half of his salary and invest it in cryptocurrencies for a week.

3. MONEY AND PUBLICITY

If your payments were publicize, what would you do? Well, designers at Method were asked to note and broadcast their every purchase! Once an employee buys something, he or she is required to post it on Instagram no matter how embarrassing it may be. Yes! Since it can be very uncomfortable, they started to share their purchases anonymously. But, the effects were still the same. People knew that they are being watched so they modified their behavior to become more interesting and to seem socially acceptable.

Image Credits: pixabay.com (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Image Credits: pixabay.com (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Aside from these futuristic ideas, how do you envision money…5 or 20 years from now?

Sources1 & 2

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Save Up to 50% Every Time You Shop at Amazon

Amazon Shopping

Yusho Liu, co-founder of CoinHako.com, dishes out the dirt on how to save money at the world’s largest online retail store.

Let’s get real. Amazon is a wonderland of everything I’ve ever wanted to buy — or didn’t know I needed until they suggested it. With a huge selection of goods being sold at competitive pricing — not to mention, their remarkable 2-day delivery — it was my go-to place for everything during my time in Silicon Valley — except for my sneakers.

So while I was in Silicon Valley attending Boost VC’s accelerator program, I chanced upon this dubious(initially) site that was offering 20% off Amazon — www.purse.io

Purse.io is a San Francisco based startup. Their investors include prominent members in the Bitcoin ecosystem, as well as several well known Silicon Valley funds.

As seen in the screenshot, Purse.io allows holders of Bitcoin to exchange Amazon credits with gift card owners through Purse’s escrow platform. I followed up with some due diligence to check the legitimacy of their platform and decided to give this a shot. I ordered a bottle of fish oil. Sure enough, I received my omega 3 caps and saved about a buck doing so.

Fast forward 3 months and I’m back in sunny Singapore settling down, where I’m busy getting operations started for my own startup — CoinHako. We make Bitcoin easy and accessible.

“Not having 2-day shipping stinks. I know. But maybe learning to save significantly on your Amazon purchases when in Singapore will make it stink less.”

1. Pick your items and place them in your wishlist

I’m sure you’ve been itching to get that latest book on pandas playing chess with gremlins right — because Amazon is Amazin.

2. Sign up for an account at Purse.io

It doesn’t take you more than 30 seconds for this step.

3. Import your Amazon Wishlist into Purse.io

Click on “Spend BTC” and import your wishlist by pasting the URL directly into the field. Click “Import” and a pop up box will appear as shown below. Follow the steps and click “Done”

4. Pick your discount and note down the total amount of Bitcoin (mBTC) required to make the purchase.

It seems like Purse has tiered the discounts based on total spending. This simply means that the more you order via Purse, the more discounts you get.. (UP TO 50%) This should be largely beneficial to people who conduct Mass Orders.

Remember to note down the amount of milli-Bitcoin you will have to purchase. In this case, 503 mBTC = 0.503 BTC

Do note that my receiving address is in Dayton, OH, which is my freight forwarder’s office. The major players in Singapore are Borderlinx, Vpost, Comgateway, 65daigou etc.

5. Create an account at your freight forwarder.

This will give you a local US address to ship to. If you are not too certain on how to use these services, there are instructions on their website.

6. Buy sufficient Bitcoin and place your order.

If you have a Singaporean bank account, head over to CoinHako.com and purchase just enough bitcoins for the purchase. I personally recommend buying a little more in case the price fluctuates. If you do not know how to purchase Bitcoin, please head over here.

Once the coins are in your wallet, send the coins out to YOUR designated wallet address.

My designated wallet address. Purse.io recommends 8% market buffer

7. Wait for transaction to be completed.

It will typically take about 30minutes for the transaction to be confirmed by the network. Once that is done, just wait till it arrives at your transit facility.

Now that you have completed your transaction for 0.503 BTC….

Let’s see how much money Purse & Bitcoin can save YOU.

 Assuming that freight charges leaving Borderlinx is constant, I did some math for regular checkout (via Mastercard), and Purse.io

1. Cost via Mastercard

Based on Amazon’s rates, the total for both items:

USD163 = SGD231.03

2. Cost via Bitcoin @ 20% discount

0.503 BTC @ CoinHako’s rates:

~SGD180

Smart Nation Shopping, this is.

Imagine saving up to $200 for a $1000 purchase.

 (Article contributed by Yusho Liu, founder of CoinHako)

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