What was considered a joke several years ago has been steadily building in popularity and rising in value; trading at values as high as $1,029 according to information gathered from CoinDesk. An estimated 15 million Bitcoins are now said to be in existence, with the currency boasting a potential total worth of $16bn.
BitCoins are an online-exclusive currency that is designed to enable anonymous purchases online. The coins are generated through a process referred to as “mining”, which requires a computer to solve a very difficult mathematical equation that results in a 64-digit number.
Although taking advantage of mining software and dedicating time to mining for Bitcoins could pay dividends in the future, many people opt to buy Bitcoins outright without the work.
Converting real-world money into Bitcoin allows for easy and anonymous money transfers across the globe. Many have speculated that Bitcoin is being used most prevalently in China as a way of bypassing the strict laws there regarding money leaving the country.
Whether this is for investment purposes or the sake of anonymity is not clear, but what is clear is that the demand is giving this currency the boost that it has needed for a long time.