Assets, Bitcoin

Is Bitcoin an Inflationary or a Deflationary Currency?

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.

Bitcoin is unique in that there are a finite number of them: 21 million.

Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.

As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment.

Bitcoin is often called the first cryptocurrency, although prior systems existed. Bitcoin is more accurately described as the first decentralized digital currency.

One of the key differences between Bitcoin and other digital currencies that preceded it is that it is decentralized; no single institution controls the bitcoin network. This puts some people at ease, because it means that a large bank can’t control their money.

With traditional fiat currencies, governments can print more money whenever they want (to fund wars or stimulus programs, for example), which causes inflation. Because there is a limited supply of bitcoins — and because new ones are created at a predictable and decreasing rate — bitcoin has been called an deflationary currency.

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