Exploding interests in Bitcoin?

This does not seem to be the case, and it is actually beginning to appear as if the harder governments try to knock down the currency, the more energized folks are in trying to deal in it and/or use it to pay for their purchases. In fact, it does seem that, for some reasons, the […]

This does not seem to be the case, and it is actually beginning to appear as if the harder governments try to knock down the currency, the more energized folks are in trying to deal in it and/or use it to pay for their purchases. In fact, it does seem that, for some reasons, the interest in this Internet currency is actually exploding at the present time.
Bitcoin does have a few advantages over any government-controlled currency, one of which is the ability to carry out global transactions without going through all those “gates” that the banks and, sometimes, the governments, represent. You need to be credit-worthy to have credit cards, and, depending on your country, easy global access to your funds in a checking account, using the debit card, is not always assured. You do not need bank accounts or credit cards to get and spend Bitcoin. The currency also offers privacy and an easy, fee-free way to transact business across international borders. The currency cannot easily be confiscated by any government, implying some kind of security!
However, Bitcoin can be afflicted by one of three potential problems, the main one being its volatility. Somebody coughs, and the currency takes a nose dive in value. This problem is made worse by the fact that Bitcoin is not backed by any currencies, so there are no verifiable assets that can be liquidated to pay users should something go wrong. So, you can literally lose all of your Bitcoin wealth in a wink of an eye. Although stocks can also be very volatile, the problem is not anywhere as serious as it is for Bitcoin. Another problem with Bitcoin is the lack of regulation, as the currency is not under the direct influence of any country. Thus, the currency is quite convenient for paying for illicit drug trafficking and for money laundering. The third problem with Bitcoin has to do with the lack of security on the web. If anyone gets hold of your private key, they can gain access to your Bitcoins and move (steal) them.
As I itemize below, there are many tell-tales of the explosion of interest in Bitcoin. A portion of the basic facts in the rest of this article can be found in CNN Money online and the “Digits” magazine of the Wall Street Journal. However, the analysis and interpretations are purely mine.
Zynga buys into Bitcoin
In December of 2013, Zynga, the popular American game company, announced it would start experimenting with Bitcoin purchases on several of its games. This event shored up the value of the digital currency, back to $1000, following the sharp decline after the clamp down on some of China’s financial institutions. Before the action of the Chinese government, one Bitcoin was worth almost $1200.
A Bitcoin mining center in Sweden
If you try to mine the U.S. dollar or the Nigerian Naira with your own machines, and you’re caught, you’ll probably get locked up and charged with a few big offenses, as minting money can only be done by the treasury department of the government. Thus, about the only things you can do with government-generated currencies is to accumulate them (in the bank, under your pillow, wherever), or spend them to pay for purchases.
On the other hand, and although it is excruciatingly difficult to do, you can create Bitcoins, in addition to spending them. You need to solve very complicated computer-based math problems in order to create Bitcoins. Standalone desktop or laptop computers will usually be too modest for this task, and you may need supercomputers or even “hypercomputers,” in order to solve the problems that enable you to create Bitcoin.
In a 6 February 2014 article in Tech Europe, Steven Grundberg wrote about the Swedish company KNC Miner that makes powerful computers solely to create Bitcoins. The company is establishing a huge data center in Boden in the northern border of Sweden, to offer spare Bitcoin-mining capacity.
 Bitcoin ATMs
Bitcoin ATMs are springing up in a few countries. The first ATMs were rolled out in Vancouver, Canada in October 2013. In Australia, the company “Australian Bitcoin ATMs,” founded by Jamie McIntyre, is said to be on its way to installing Bitcoin ATMs all over Australia. Because Bitcoin ATMs will effectively be two-way vending machines, they are not regarded as deposit-taking institutions. Therefore, no licenses are needed to operate them in Australia. Note that Bitcoin isn’t a recognized legal tender in that country, and the government appears to have no plans to review this, at least as of now, although I would imagine this situation will change if the volume of trading in Bitcoin becomes really large.
On 15 January 2014, Ramy Inocencio wrote about the first Bitcoin ATM in Asia in “Digits” online magazine. The facility is based Hong Kong. Thus, even though it is illegal to market in Bitcoin in mainland China, Hong Kong seems to have sufficient autonomy to be able to make the decision to allow the installation of Bitcoin ATMs. However, the installation of Bitcoin ATMs in Taiwan has been met with some resistance from the country’s financial regulators.
The main idea in this article is that Bitcoin, the most successful Internet currency so far, seems to be rapidly gaining more ground, in spite of the unfavorable dispositions of some governments towards dealing in the currency.