The bitcoin currency exchange might be a revolution. What else can you buy at $93.03 and sell at $1,124.37 just eight months later? That’s exactly what would have happened if you’d bought Bitcoins on March 30, 2013 and liquidated on November 30th. (11) A 12-times return in just eight months. Safe? Not especially. Yet the bitcoin currency exchange may well be 
positioned to become the accepted form of currency that mirrors our global evolution to living and conducting business on the Web. And until that day, you might tempted — as many are — to consider speculating a bit.
Since their launch in 2009, Bitcoins have existed as strings of digital data that can be sent through the Internet to purchase products and services. The media points to dramatic examples that seem to say that the bitcoin currency exchange is legitimate — exemplified by an anonymous buyer from Florida who purchased [2] a Tesla Model S automobile for 91.5 Bitcoins. More pedestrian examples [3] include retailers selling eyeglasses, professional services and electronics. Many are attracted to Bitcoins (“BTC’s” as they’re known) for these reasons.
BTC’s can be transferred from one entity to another via the Internet with fees averaging around 40 cents, [10] rather than the substantial fees for wire transfers a bank would levy.
BTC’s can be used worldwide between any two parties who have Internet access.
BTC’s are kept in a digital wallet. It takes the form of a file on your hard drive, or saved on a thumb drive you might keep in a safe deposit box. Because you alone control your wallet, your account cannot be frozen.
There’s no law or regulation that excludes you from collecting BTC’s. The “Real ID Act” banks use to identify you become irrelevant. You have substantial (but not complete) anonymity in moving BTC’s from your wallet to that of another.
Digital Danger and Bitcoin Currency Exchange
The dangerous aspects of the bitcoin curency exchange became apparent following an article [4] titled “The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable.” That infamous “Silk Road” website became a portal supporting myriad Bitcoin currency exchange transactions that eluded any central bank. Because it accepted Bitcoins, it became an exciting new portal among people who sought to buy drugs and to avoid taxation on their Bitcoin exchange currency earnings. The website was shut down [5] in 2013 after Senator Charles Schumer complained, yet reopened as “Silk Road 2.0” just a month later. Between its founding in 2011 and July, 2013, over one million transactions were completed with a value more than $1.2 billion, mostly originating from buyers in the UK, Australia, Europe and Canada. Those Silk Road sales accounted for over 80 percent of all Bitcoins in circulation during those years.
However, beyond the use of Bitcoins for illegal purchases, this no-central-bank currency concerns both politicians and investors. Politicians seem to worry that the American consumer may be hurt by dealing in the bitcoin currency exchange — a “crypto currency” much different than the trusty American dollar. However, those worries beg the deeper question that the bitcoin currency exchange income may not be reported to the IRS and other taxing authorities. On the other hand, Investors seeking extraordinary returns need to consider volatility and follow developments in the Bitcoin currency exchange market closely.
BTC’s saw a low value at around $14 during 2013, but skyrocketed to over $1,120 toward the end of that year. In February, 2014 the Japanese Mt. Gox exchange — the world’s largest that allowed BTC owners to cash in their BTC’s for their nation’s fiat currency — failed and filed bankruptcy. The Mt. Gox demise led to the loss of some 850,000 Bitcoins [6] and three-quarters of a million customers. In turn, that led to a rush [7] by the Chinese to quadruple their trading in BTC’s.
Yet, according to reports, the Mt. Gox exchange had internal problems that affect neither the validity nor the utility of Bitcoins. Devotees refer to Bitcoins and their various exchanges as “a noble venture.” [8]
Coming Next …
Some pundits argue that all the world’s currencies are fiat currency, even during times when currency of various nations was backed by gold. After all, it’s the agreement among humanity that gold has intrinsic value. Fixing the value of a nation’s currency to a gold standard can be seen as a fiat in and of itself.
The bitcoin currency exchange isn’t the only one of its kind. There are the cryptographic digital competitors (Dogecoin and Litecoin, in particular) all seem to hold a place in a world that’s being driven by technology. Three billion people are connected to the Internet via six billion fixed and mobile devices. With banking malfeasance and record-breaking fines reaching more than $16 billion [JP Morgan Chase], an unstable world economy and at least one government [Greece] raiding bank accounts of its citizens to fund their deficit spending, perhaps Bitcoin currency exchange or another crypto currency will find its way to success. As the founder of BTC China reported to Forbes Magazine, [9] “Bitcoin is a digital asset, like real estate, gold, or stock. It is just one more option now. With Bitcoin hard-coded to be limited, it’s like a collectible.”
At the very least, governments may want to stand back and overlook their fears that their central banks and taxing authorities will be irreparably damaged by a currency that’s controlled by the people rather than the governments and the bankers.
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Sources:
(1) https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
(2) http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/06/autos/tesla-bitcoin/
(3) https://spendbitcoins.com/places/
(4) http://gawker.com/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imag-30818160
(5) https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf
(6) http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1437296/tokyo-based-bitcoin-exchange-mt-gox-files-bankruptcy
(7) http://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/1435890/mt-gox-exchange-shutdown-sparks-chinese-bitcoin-gold-rush
(8) http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1437296/tokyo-based-bitcoin-exchange-mt-gox-files-bankruptcy
(9) http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/11/08/from-walmart-to-bitcoin-the-ceo-behind-the-chinese-exchange-sending-bitcoin-to-new-highs/
(10) http://bitcoinfees.com/
(11) https://coinbase.com/charts