The bitcoin lives his moment of glory

The price of virtual currency stringing maximum technical advances driven by speculative motives and the impression that their role will be increasingly important.

As if by magic, Alberto Gómez saw last August 1 how your investment is multiplied. 30,000 euros he had in bitcoins grew by 10%. But beyond the sudden fortune of this computer, that day happened something major for those who live slopes of the most famous criptodivisa the world: the division into two, which zanjaba a lengthy wrangle About that sometimes has acquired guerracivilescos dyes in this community .

Despite what the doomsayers predicted, the split seems to have given new strength to bitcoin: in less than three weeks, each worth has gone from $ 2,700 to exceed 4,300. Since early this year, its value has more than quintupled. And its proponents are convinced that this is just the beginning.

The revaluation is explained by several reasons. Influencing a new version of programming – the so-called SegWit2x-increasing speed of operations. Also contributes to raising the flood of investors, attracted by the big returns, they begin an interest in the world of criptomonedas; especially considering that the number of bitcoins has a roof – there can never be more than 21 million-, and demand is growing. But apart from all these factors, beating the perception that a virtual currency so often left for dead will go an becoming increasingly important in the future.

The bitcoin lives his moment of glory

“I have very clear that bitcoin is here to stay. It’s just a matter of time extending to more people. I do not think that in the short term will have a massive use, but in fields such as international trade is an to be gaining adherents, “says Leif Ferreira, a computer young man who three years ago he founded Bit2me, the leader manager bitcoins that now exists in Spain.

Along Calle Serrano Madrid began three years ago a project, now failed to boost trade with bitcoins. Because, despite the impressive climb of $ 0 in 2009 to over 4,300 today, the currency that invented the programmer – or group of programmers-under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto has failed to get into the daily lives of consumers. It is on this street, facing an one of the few ATMs bitcoins in Madrid, where this newspaper has quoted an Alberto Gomez, Jorge Ordovás and Paul Burgess, the creators of NevTrace, laboratory blockchain, technology using bitcoin, every time most required by large companies.

Ordovás, which also runs a postgraduate blockchain at the European University of Madrid, explains the reasons why bitcoin money creation was so traumatic for many members of this community created in 2008 under the auspices of crypto-anarchism. “The bitcoin born in full emergency with the thought of changing the economic model and replace human decisions, imperfect by definition, by cryptography based on mathematical models. But after a very ideological origin has become a business, “says this expert.

The split occurred between the groups demanding keep the original spirit, and reject that more transactions at the expense of some companies control the process, and those who wanted a more usable currency. And so this talk About an attacking one of the great principles of bitcoin, which is its decentralized nature, and guarantee that no one can control.

“Bitcoin is not just about making money transactions quickly and cheaply. It also has to be transparent and without centralized control, “summarizes Ferreira, whose start up of bitcoins manages purchases worth 20 million euros per year.

NevTrace creators noticed in your every day as more and more companies and organizations are interested in blockchain technology: from Europol, which seeks solutions to the kidnappers asking for the ransom payment in Bitcoins, to the European Commission.

“Companies like Destinia, Prada or Agatha Ruiz de la Prada accept payments in bitcoins. We suspect are very few, but not known for sure how many, “says Burgess. Why Treasury has already begun an interest in this technology to prevent fraud through this route. “It’s a part where almost no one is paying the Treasury and evading money is so fierce,” continues the legitimate NevTrace expert.

“Large companies in the Ibex used criptomonedas created by themselves to move funds between group companies,” adds his partner Gómez. These projects remain for now hidden by the desire of companies not to disclose their strategic plans and the widespread perception that the world is linked bitcoin an criminal activity or specifically to tax evasion.

On May 22, 2010, a user first made a transaction of bitcoins with genuine money. He offered to pay two pizzas with your credit card an another netizen in exchange for 10,000 units of the unknown currency that was born two years ago. Today, if I had kept these seven years without touching their investment, those two pizzas would have offered him a profit of about 36.5 million euros.

WHAT YOU CAN BUY WITH cryptocurrency?

JACOBO PEDRAZA

Using bitcoin for everyday business transactions is far from common. Nor is that its reason for being genuine, transformed into an investment. Pee not see bitcoins payments on a daily basis, you can buy almost anything with this cryptocurrency. For example on websites like Purse or All4btc, through which it acquiesce to the catalog of Amazon, Alibaba and eBay, the biggest online stores worldwide. Also on the website of Microsoft. Or the chairman gaming platform, Steam.

You can also plan a vacation without speaking euros. The entryway Expedia travel was in 2014 of the major drivers of the (so far unsuccessful) attempt to make the bitcoin payment means ongoing. Today, it continues to accept payments with virtual currency. Spanish agency Destinia also allows you to pay for flights, lodging reservations and rent cars using this method.

It is much more difficult to find physical stores that accept bitcoins. The initiative CalleBitcoin drove in three years use in shops of the Salamanca district of Madrid. Most establishments, 50, have been retreating after checking an impact on sales virtually nil. Despite an it it is still possible to buy clothes, eat and have drinks with virtual money in the Serrano street environment.

But perhaps the most common purchases with bitcoins, a difficult instrument to trace, which one child does not want to know: Bookmakers on the web, networks dating as Badoo or Sparklet sex articles or pages.