Kyle Kragnes
Finance 430
5/8/2018
The Rise of Bitcoin
Over the past two years Bitcoin has really taken off in value as well as popularity. If you
had asked a random person on the street two years ago about bitcoin, there is a high probability
that random person will have no idea what you are talking about. Since, Bitcoin has exploded in
popularity on social medias, online and actual usage of the currency. Bitcoin was developed in
2009 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The invention
of Bitcoin is designed to be used a peer to peer payment system that is not attached to central
bank or administrator. Perhaps, the greatest thing about the rise of Bitcoin, is the invention of
blockchain technology that was created with Bitcoin in 2009. Blockchain is a general ledger
which all the transactions from bitcoins are posted too. Blockchain, along with Bitcoin, is
decentralized that has no owning entity and no points of failure since its inception in 2009.
Bitcoin has taken off and I believe is here to stay for the long road.
Although the value and knowledge of Bitcoin has soared in the past couple of years, the
actual payments with Bitcoin has taken its time. While I do not know a lot of people who have
used Bitcoin as a means of buying products or services, I do know that a lot of online merchants
do accept Bitcoin as a means of payment. For example, travel-booking websites such as Expedia
and Cheapair.com have started accepting Bitcoin as a payment method. Because there are
thousands of merchants online accepting Bitcoin, the general public is not using Bitcoin as a
payment method. My confidence with using Bitcoin as a payment method is pretty high, while I
do admit I never have used Bitcoin as a payment method. Although I have confidence in the
cryptocurrency, I never have used it because I have never come across a merchant that accepts it.
Most of my online shopping is in the form of Amazon and this tech giant has not accepted this
payment method. There is a workaround method to use Bitcoin to pay on Amazon, such as
buying e-gift cards using Bitcoin and then using the e-gift cards on Amazon. I believe if the
federal government gets involved in cryptocurrency, then we will have some of the more larger
merchants accepting Bitcoin as a payment method.
Bitcoin has been around for coming up on a decade. And in the next five years, I believe
that Bitcoin will have a bigger impact on our society than it does currently. While Bitcoin is very
volatile and suspect to big drops and gains in value, I believe it is here to stay. I do think that
with more time and understanding of cryptocurrency, the general public will begin to trust
