On MAY 2014 the price of 1 bitcoin stood at $420(US DOLLARS), a long way from trading below $4 just two

years ago.

According to recentBloomberg poll, only

42% of Americans

correctly identifiedBitcoin as VIRTUALCURRENCY.

6% thought it was

an iPhone app.

The original Bitcoin software was developed by SatoshiNakamoto -a Japanese programmer.

It was founded by Bitcoin core developers in 2008 andintroduced as open source in 2009.

Bitcoin is crypto-currency; a new and uniquefinancial vehicle, unlike anything the world hasever seen.

BitCoin is a PEER-TO-PEER VIRTUAL CURRENCY.This means that in order of transaction to occur, no middle man or central authority is needed.

You can send any amountof bitcoins to anyone livinganywhere in the world,completely eliminating theneed of traditional thirdparties like banks ormoney transmitters. Thecrypto-currency alsoallows the bypassing ofcapitol and AMLrestrictions.

In order to SEND or RECEIVE bitcoins,All you need to have is a bitcoin address and internet access. You only need to be online long enough for the transaction process. Similarly, to the traditional bank accounts you can receive your bitcoins to your bitcoin address even if you are offline.

How to get a BITCOIN ADDRESS?You can get a Bitcoin address either by downloading the BitCoin client or getting an online wallet. There are two BitCoin clients:

Where are your BitCoins stored?After you install one of the two clients, you can findyour bitcoins in a file called wallet.datIf you use Windows, this file will be located inapplication data.

BitCoins are also stored in

ONLINE WALLETS.These are specialized onlinewebsites that offer BitCoinwallet services. However, due tothese sites being a frequenttarget of hackers, keepingbitcoins in online wallets is notrecommended when you caneasily store them offline on yourcomputer.

BTC exchanges are somewhat safer place for you bitcoins, compared to online wallets because they keep the coins in “cold storage”.Usually over 90% of bitcoins deposited on exchanges are kept offline. Only 5-10% are kept online for immediate redemption purposes.

Block Chain

Transaction-Private Keys

Processing -Mining

• Once you have installed a Bitcoin wallet on yourcomputer or mobile phone, it will generate your firstBitcoin address and you can create more whenever youneed one.

• You can disclose your addresses to your friends so thatthey can pay you or vice versa.

• In fact, this is pretty similar to how email works, exceptthat Bitcoin addresses should only be used once.

• The block chain is a shared public ledger on which theentire Bitcoin network relies.

• All confirmed transactions are included in the blockchain.

• The integrity and the chronological order of the blockchain are enforced with cryptography.

• A transaction is a transfer of value between Bitcoinwallets that gets included in the block chain.

• Bitcoin wallets keep a secret piece of data calleda private key, which is used to sign transactions,providing a mathematical proof that they have comefrom the owner of the wallet.

• All transactions are broadcast between users andusually begin to be confirmed by the network in thefollowing 10 minutes, through a process called mining.

• Mining is a distributed consensus system that is usedto confirm waiting transactions by including them in theblock chain.

• No individuals can control what is included in the blockchain or replace parts of the block chain to roll backtheir own spends.

Global accessibility

Tips and Donations

Cost Efficiency

Control against fraud

DecentralizationTransparency

MicropaymentsCrowdfundingDispute mediation

Automated Solutions

https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works

https://bitcoin.org/en/getting-started

https://bitcoin.org/en/innovation

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.coindesk.com/information/how-do-bitcoin-transactions-work/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin