Bitcoins are a fascinating piece of culture, primarily because of what they represent. This cryptocurrency operates exactly the same way as cash, except it has no physical representation. Everything is done through computers, and the currency isn’t even technically recognized as an official currency by many governments. However, that doesn’t stop people from using it, in many cases to specifically avoid using ‘real’ money. Due to the nature of the algorithm used to create the bitcoin system, there is a theoretical limit to the number of bitcoins that can exist, but that number has not yet been discovered by the public. How does one go about acquiring their own bitcoins, then? There are four main methods that people use to obtain bitcoins, which have been outlined for you below.

Outright Purchase

The first and possibly easiest way to obtain bitcoins is to buy them on a bitcoin exchange, which works much like a stock exchange. When you do this, you are transferring ‘real’ money into a system that then pays you in bitcoin. This method of paying with other true currencies to obtain bitcoins is part of what gives value to the bitcoins themselves, while the other part of their value is simply based on trust, which could be said of just about any other currency. Purchasing bitcoins outright is typically only a good idea if you are attempting to profit from the highly volatile price of bitcoins. Trading currency as a way of profiting value is a practice as old as currency itself, and bitcoin is no different.

Accept Them As Payment

This only really applies to vendors or those who have goods or services that they sell for a living, but it can make a large difference to your customer base, and your potential profits. Once you have a bitcoin wallet set up and ready to go, you can then create a system for accepting bitcoins that fits right alongside your current payment options. No matter what sort of service or product you offer, you can accept bitcoin as a potential payment type. The currency works exactly like cash, only without the backing of the federal government.

Mine New Ones

Perhaps the most exciting way to obtain bitcoins is to mine new ones for yourself. That may sound like a strange phrase, especially considering bitcoins aren’t physical objects. How can one mine them? The answer lies in how the transaction system functions. Whenever a bitcoin transaction takes place, it must be verified in order to ensure all the bitcoins involved are legitimate. There are thousands upon thousands of transactions, so they are bundled together in virtual boxes held locked by what is known as a block chain. A bitcoin miner uses advanced software and hardware to search for the key to unlock the block chain, confirming the transactions held within. The reward for generating this key is 25 newly generated bitcoins, which are transferred to whomever unlocked the block chain. However, it takes nearly 2 billion attempts to find any given key, which is why finding one is so rare. Only once every 10 minutes is the full reward given out, despite all the miners working toward the same goal. Bitcoin mining is something that might cost you more than you make from it, which is why it is still a relatively unheard option. For example, you may spend a certain amount of money to upgrade your system to handle the mining process, only to find that your level of bitcoin income isn’t satisfactory to cover your costs. There are even specialty circuits being built specifically to mine for bitcoins, and they are not cheap.

Visit A Bitcoin Faucet

A bitcoin faucet is exactly what it sounds like: an app or website that allows you to earn free bitcoins by performing exceptionally simple tasks, like playing a game or reading. For instance, there is a game for the Android platform called Coin Flapper, which is a Flappy Birds parody that allows players to play against other flappers to win 0.000006 BTC (bitcoin). The game can be played up to 200 times per day for free. Another excellent bitcoin faucet is PaidBooks.com. This site will literally pay you to read classic literature, and they pay in bitcoin, which is another perk. While these bitcoin faucets don’t pay exorbitantly, they are still a better way to spend free time than playing games or reading books that pay you nothing whatsoever.

Bitcoins are an example of how the free market can regulate itself, at least to a certain degree. They are a first step in the abolishment of centralized currencies that can be easily manipulated by government agencies. If you are smart with how you go about it, you could easily make a profit just by moving bitcoins around at the right time, but the first step is acquiring a bitcoin wallet and a few bitcoins of your own to get started.