We are going to explain what it is a cryptocurrency, specifically the Bitcoin from a technological approach.
· Bitcoin is a decentralized network distributed all over the world. This network is made up of tens of thousands of devices and computers, all this has an objective value. Being a network and a decentralized system, there is no central authority and this is not very popular with banks, investment funds and states.
Bitcoin users do not have to ask for permission, they can simply send bitcoins directly to another user who is anywhere in the world, and this will take them in a matter of minutes.
· Bitcoin is a protocol, that is, a secure telecommunications system, which allows forming a dynamic network of nodes to which members can be joined or separated at any time without there being a "central service" that has to give permission to these connections or other network activities. This is achieved with a system of consensus among the components of the network and since 2009 has been resisting all types of computer attacks. This also has an objective value.
· Bitcoin is a very special, immutable, hyperreplicated Distributed Database with a sophisticated integrity control that makes it almost impossible to alter. This technology is enormously valuable and increasingly popular, it is the famous BlockChain or Block Chain.
· Bitcoin is Free Software (Open Source) which means that all its operation is transparent since the code can be checked by anyone. A global community contributes with improvements that are available to all. This Software and this development team and the entire group that supports it undoubtedly have an objective value.
An exemplary case of Free Software is Linux. Free, open, maintained and improved by the community, is at the same time the most important operating system on the Internet, in most of the Supercomputers and is also the core of Android.
Bitcoin is an electronic form of money between parties (A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System). As indicated in the White Paper (WhitePaper) of Bitcoin signed by Sathoshi Nakamoto. Providing an electronic "Cash Money" exchange infrastructure also worries the monetary authorities, banks and institutions (all those that led us to the last economic crisis of 2008 or did not know how to avoid it). The money in cash allows us to buy something without an intermediary like a bank having to intervene in the transaction. Nor is it necessary to provide personal data. Obviously this system has an objective value, in fact it is used to buy regularly in many countries, for example Japan. Bitcoin is also used in fully regulated investment funds.
They are technologies so advanced that the "big" economists and investors do not quite understand them.