What is Bitcoin?

Hi friends...

As everybody who is arriving on this page, I was highly interested by bitcoin, especially after I heard about people that became rich after they started to use it. More over, after I checked it's USD value I was very impressed, but after a short look to the history of this e-coin, I was shocked: OMG... I could be very rich if I'd have a few dozens (maybe hundreds, even hundreds) of bitcoins...

Anyway, after several days of dozens of questions and regrets (on what planet did I was in that time?...), I started to search on the Internet about this Bitcoin.

So, what is Bitcoin, exactly?

It was invented in 2007 and launched on the Internet in 2009, by a guy (Satoshi Nakamoto), who seems to be politically motivated to create an independent currency, based on a P2P (peer-to-peer) network to ensure that nobody will control for a certain time this currency and to ensure a libertarian financial transactions, because banks are not involved, there are no transaction fees and people can buy/sell services or products anonymously...

How to get bitcoins?

Generally, there are 2 ways:
- buying bitcoins from an exchange (mtgox is the most recommended);
- mining bitcoins via computer hardware to solve very complex math puzzles.

Future

Bitcoin has un unpredictible future, governments wants to control and tax it, the illicit activities grow very fast arround this coin due to the almost total anonymity, contries like China have a positive atitude and others tend to consider it an illegal coin. Who knows...