Bitcoin one oh one. I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech Daily. Okay, how many times have you heard someone talk about bitcoin, cryptocurrency or blockchain. These buzzwords are being thrown around like everyone knows what they mean, but do they really. I figured, you know, what it is, time, with so many people investing in this stuff and talking about it, to get a little bit more information about it.
So I talked to Alan Goren.
He's a financial technology entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. He also hosts one of the biggest cryptocurrency investment events every year. It's called the Crypto invest Summit. And he told me point blank, the average person does not understand And he said, the average person who's a bitcoin millionaire probably doesn't understand bitcoin for the most part, which is kind of crazy because people have made money on this stuff.
He's all into this stuff.
He even got his wife to write a book on it called Bitcoin for Babies, which is really cute. It's available on Amazon. But let's start with the basics. Cryptocurrency. This is a new type of digital money that basically uses complex math equations instead of bank records to verify transactions. And Goren says there's over fifteen hundred different types of cryptocurrencies and they all do different things. Now, of course we've all heard of bitcoin. That's the most widely known,
so it's super popular. And he said the reason why it's most popular is because it was the first major cryptocurrency. It got the most adoption, and it was really revolutionary in what it did. Now, like cash, cryptocurrency is anonymous, but there's a big difference. Unlike cash, cryptocurrency is independent of all banks or government.
So basically, this is the crazy part.
Every single little piece of cryptocurrency carries its own record of everywhere it's ever been exchanged.
Yes, that record gets pretty big. And the reason why Goren.
Says that this is special is because it is called trustless.
That means you don't have to have a middleman.
So, if you think about it, the way that you normally send money is from bank to bank. The bank says, yes, we have this money, we approve it, and the other bank says, okay, we've received this money, and we acknowledge that this all happens within the currency itself, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. So what is the biggest thing holding bitcoin back? Well, it is slow
transaction time. Think about it right now, Every transaction must be approved, and it's approved through these computers, a worldwide network of peer to peer computers. They call these things minors, and anyone can really sign up to be a minor. They do all the work and if you solve one of these transactions, you're rewarded with a little bitcoin for yourself. So you have a lot of people doing this and that's how the system propagates.
That's how the system.
Actually works because there's always someone out there that wants to say, Hey, I want a little tiny piece of the money here, so I'm going to solve these transactions and that's what really powers the entire system. So why are investors going wild over all these new currencies like Bitcoin and similar currencies you've heard about, cryptocurrencies like.
Light coin and ethereum.
Well, Goren says, there are lots and lots of very valuable tools being built on them, and that is what the value is all about.
So where can you spend this money? If you buy some bitcoin?
I actually bought twenty five dollars worth of bitcoin through an app called square Cash. It made it really easy, but spending bitcoin, it could be a little bit tough for the average person. Right now, just a handful of businesses, big businesses accept it as a payment type. You're not going to find it as a checkout option on Amazon, but overstock dot Com is one of the pioneers and accepting it, and there's a whole bunch of other companies as well. Coinbase is one of the popular websites for
buying bitcoin. That's probably the most popular, the one that you hear over and over. They have a whole list of companies where you can spend it as well. But if you've been keeping up on the bitcoin news, you know that the price fluctuates wildly. So the twenty five dollars that I put in there as of today is up to twenty eight, but it was down to eighteen just.
A week ago, so it is pretty crazy.
It's like an investment, so if you're gonna put money on this, you need to understand what you're getting into before you plunk down your cash.
All right, If you want to learn.
More about bitcoin, you can find some resources and links on my website.
Just go to rich on tech dot tv.
Hopefully I help you understand a little bit more about this emerging currency. It is very interesting and very unique. I'm rich Demiro rich on tech.
I'll talk to you next time.