{% translate pagetitle %}
+{% translate summary %}
+ +{% translate table %}
+ +-
+
- {% translate general %} +
- {% translate whatisbitcoin %} +
- {% translate creator %} +
- {% translate whocontrols %} +
- {% translate howitworks %} +
- {% translate used %} +
- {% translate acquire %} +
- {% translate makepayment %} +
- {% translate advantages %} +
- {% translate disadvantages %} +
- {% translate trust %} +
- {% translate makemoney %} +
- {% translate virtual %} +
- {% translate anonymous %} +
- {% translate lost %} +
- {% translate scale %} +
- {% translate legal %} +
- {% translate islegal %} +
- {% translate illegalactivities %} +
- {% translate regulated %} +
- {% translate taxes %} +
- {% translate economy %} +
- {% translate bitcoinscreated %} +
- {% translate whyvalue %} +
- {% translate whatprice %} +
- {% translate worthless %} +
- {% translate bubble %} +
- {% translate ponzi %} +
- {% translate earlyadopter %} +
- {% translate finitelimitation %} +
- {% translate deflationaryspiral %} +
- {% translate speculationvolatility %} +
- {% translate buyall %} +
- {% translate bettercurrency %} +
- {% translate transactions %} +
- {% translate tenminutes %} +
- {% translate fee %} +
- {% translate poweredoff %} +
- {% translate sync %} +
- {% translate mining %} +
- {% translate whatismining %} +
- {% translate howminingworks %} +
- {% translate miningwaste %} +
- {% translate miningsecure %} +
- {% translate miningstart %} +
- {% translate security %} +
- {% translate secure %} +
- {% translate hacked %} +
- {% translate collude %} +
- {% translate quantum %} +
- {% translate help %} + +
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General
+ +{% translate whatisbitcoin %}
+{% translate whatisbitcointxt1 %}
+ +{% translate creator %}
+{% translate creatortxt1 %}
+{% translate creatortxt2 %}
+ +{% translate whocontrols %}
+{% translate whocontrolstxt1 %}
+ +{% translate howitworks %}
+{% translate howitworkstxt1 %}
+{% translate howitworkstxt2 %}
+ +{% translate used %}
+{% translate usedtxt1 %}
+
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+
{% translate acquire %}
+-
+
- {% translate acquireli1 %} +
- {% translate acquireli2 %} +
- {% translate acquireli3 %} +
- {% translate acquireli4 %} +
{% translate acquiretxt1 %}
+ +{% translate makepayment %}
+{% translate makepaymenttxt1 %}
+
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+
{% translate advantages %}
+-
+
- {% translate advantagesli1 %} +
- {% translate advantagesli2 %} +
- {% translate advantagesli3 %} +
- {% translate advantagesli4 %} +
- {% translate advantagesli5 %} +
{% translate disadvantages %}
+-
+
- {% translate disadvantagesli1 %} +
- {% translate disadvantagesli2 %} +
- {% translate disadvantagesli3 %} +
{% translate trust %}
+{% translate trusttxt1 %}
+ +{% translate makemoney %}
+{% translate makemoneytxt1 %}
+{% translate makemoneytxt2 %}
+ +{% translate virtual %}
+{% translate virtualtxt1 %}
+ +{% translate anonymous %}
+{% translate anonymoustxt1 %}
+{% translate anonymoustxt2 %}
+ +{% translate lost %}
+{% translate losttxt1 %}
+ +{% translate scale %}
+{% translate scaletxt1 %}
+ +{% translate legal %}
+ +{% translate islegal %}
+{% translate islegaltxt1 %}
+{% translate islegaltxt2 %}
+-
+
- Virtual Currency Schemes - European Central Bank +
- Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Persons Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies +
{% translate illegalactivities %}
+{% translate illegalactivitiestxt1 %}
+{% translate illegalactivitiestxt2 %}
+{% translate illegalactivitiestxt3 %}
+ +{% translate regulated %}
+{% translate regulatedtxt1 %}
+{% translate regulatedtxt2 %}
+ +{% translate taxes %}
+{% translate taxestxt1 %}
+ +{% translate economy %}
+ +{% translate bitcoinscreated %}
+{% translate bitcoinscreatedtxt1 %}
+{% translate bitcoinscreatedtxt2 %}
+{% translate bitcoinscreatedtxt3 %}
+ +{% translate whyvalue %}
+{% translate whyvaluetxt1 %}
+ +{% translate whatprice %}
+{% translate whatpricetxt1 %}
+{% translate whatpriceimg1 %}
{% translate worthless %}
+{% translate worthlesstxt1 %}
+ +{% translate bubble %}
+{% translate bubbletxt1 %}
+ +{% translate ponzi %}
+{% translate ponzitxt1 %}
+{% translate ponzitxt2 %}
+ +{% translate earlyadopter %}
+{% translate earlyadoptertxt1 %}
+ +{% translate finitelimitation %}
+{% translate finitelimitationtxt1 %}
+ +{% translate deflationaryspiral %}
+{% translate deflationaryspiraltxt1 %}
+{% translate deflationaryspiraltxt2 %}
+{% translate deflationaryspiraltxt3 %}
+ +{% translate speculationvolatility %}
+{% translate speculationvolatilitytxt1 %}
+{% translate speculationvolatilitytxt2 %}
+ +{% translate buyall %}
+{% translate buyalltxt1 %}
+ +{% translate bettercurrency %}
+{% translate bettercurrencytxt1 %}
+ +{% translate transactions %}
+ +{% translate tenminutes %}
+{% translate tenminutestxt1 %}
+ +{% translate fee %}
+{% translate feetxt1 %}
+{% translate feetxt2 %}
+ +{% translate poweredoff %}
+{% translate poweredofftxt1 %}
+ +{% translate sync %}
+{% translate synctxt1 %}
+ +{% translate mining %}
+ +{% translate whatismining %}
+{% translate whatisminingtxt1 %}
+ +{% translate howminingworks %}
+{% translate howminingworkstxt1 %}
+{% translate howminingworkstxt2 %}
+{% translate howminingworkstxt3 %}
+{% translate howminingworkstxt4 %}
+ +{% translate miningwaste %}
+{% translate miningwastetxt1 %}
+{% translate miningwastetxt2 %}
+ +{% translate miningsecure %}
+{% translate miningsecuretxt1 %}
+ +{% translate miningstart %}
+{% translate miningstarttxt1 %}
+ +{% translate security %}
+ +{% translate secure %}
+{% translate securetxt1 %}
+ +{% translate hacked %}
+{% translate hackedtxt1 %}
+{% translate hackedtxt2 %}
+ +{% translate collude %}
+{% translate colludetxt1 %}
+{% translate colludetxt2 %}
+ +{% translate quantum %}
+{% translate quantumtxt1 %}
+ +{% translate help %}
+ +{% translate morehelp %}
+{% translate morehelptxt1 %}
diff --git a/_translations/en.yml b/_translations/en.yml index fa35a2d8..e6fc6048 100644 --- a/_translations/en.yml +++ b/_translations/en.yml @@ -1,32 +1,4 @@ en: - about: - title: "About - Bitcoin" - pagetitle: "About Bitcoin" - history: "A bit of history" - historytxt1: "Bitcoin is one of the first implementations of a concept called crypto-currency, which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list. Building upon the notion that money is any object, or any sort of record, accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context, Bitcoin is designed around the idea of a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than relying on central authorities." - historytxt2: "In 2009, the first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in a cryptography mailing list by a member under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Towards the end of 2010 Satoshi left the project, saying he had moved on to other things. The creator of Bitcoin never revealed his identity and simply left his invention to the world. The origin and the motivation behind Bitcoin are still today a great source of mystery." - historytxt3: "Since 2010, the Bitcoin community has grown with many developers working on the project. During June and July 2011, Bitcoin suddenly gained media attention leading to a massive buy rally. The resulting bubble slowly deflated through the latter part of 2011, and since then the value of Bitcoin has slowly climbed once again back to its 2011 heights." - historytxt4: "On September 27th 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation was created in an effort to standardize, protect, and promote Bitcoin. Today, the Bitcoin economy is developing quickly with new users joining every day." - technical: "Technical features" - technicalintro: "These are the basic features of any Bitcoin-like network." - technicaltxt1: "Bitcoins can be transferred between arbitrary nodes on the network." - technicaltxt2: "Transactions are irreversible." - technicaltxt3: "Double spending is prevented by using a block chain." - technicaltxt4: "Transactions are broadcast within seconds and verified within 10 to 60 minutes." - technicaltxt5: "Transaction processing and money issuance are carried out collectively through mining." - technicaltxt6: "Transactions can be received at any time, regardless of whether your computer is turned on or off." - economics: "Economic rules" - economicsintro: "These rules are enforced collectively by the Bitcoin network." - economicstxt1: "Hard limit of about 21 million bitcoins." - economicstxt2: "Bitcoins are divisible to 8 decimal places, yielding a total of approximately 21×1014 currency units." - economicstxt3: "Transactions are cheap and mostly free." - stats: "Statistics" - statsintro: "The Bitcoin network has been running continuously for more than 48 months, yielded impressive security features and grown significantly in the past year. As of April 2013:" - statstxt1: "Long block chain with more than 232,000 blocks." - statstxt2: "One of the largest distributed computing network in the world with more than 65 terahashes/s." - statstxt3: "Millions of US$ in daily trade volume distributed across 50,000 transactions." - statstxt4: "Total value of all bitcoins in circulation is over US$1.3 billion." - statstxt5: "Only one major security incident in the protocol which was fixed in August 2010." about-us: title: "About bitcoin.org" pagetitle: "About bitcoin.org" @@ -197,6 +169,140 @@ en: meetupbitcointalk: "Bitcoin meetups on BitcoinTalk" meetupwiki: "Bitcoin meetups on the Wiki" meetupgroup: "Bitcoin meetup groups" + faq: + title: "FAQ - Bitcoin" + pagetitle: "Frequently Asked Questions" + summary: "Find answers to recurring questions and myths about Bitcoin." + table: "Table of contents" + general: "General" + whatisbitcoin: "What is Bitcoin?" + whatisbitcointxt1: "Bitcoin is a consensus network and an open-source software platform that enables a new payment system and a completely digital money. It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen. From a user perspective, Bitcoin is pretty much like cash for the Internet. Bitcoin can also be seen as the most prominent triple entry bookkeeping system in existence." + creator: "Who created Bitcoin?" + creatortxt1: "Bitcoin is the first implementation of a concept called \"crypto-currency\", which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list, suggesting the idea of a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority. The first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi left the project in late 2010 without revealing much about himself. The community has since grown exponentially with many developers working on Bitcoin." + creatortxt2: "Satoshi's anonymity often raised unjustified concerns, many of which are linked to misunderstanding of the open-source nature of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin protocol and software are published openly and any developer around the world can review the code or make their own modified version of the Bitcoin software. Just like current developers, Satoshi's influence was limited to the changes he made being adopted by others and therefore he did not control Bitcoin. As such, the identity of Bitcoin's inventor is probably as relevant today as the identity of the person who invented paper." + whocontrols: "Who controls the Bitcoin network?" + whocontrolstxt1: "Nobody owns the Bitcoin network much like no one owns the technology behind email. Bitcoin is controlled by all Bitcoin users around the world. While developers are improving the software, they can't force a change in the Bitcoin protocol because all users are free to choose what software and version they use. In order to stay compatible with each other, all users need to use software complying with the same rules. Bitcoin can only work correctly with a complete consensus among all users. Therefore, all users and developers have a strong incentive to protect this consensus." + howitworks: "How does Bitcoin work?" + howitworkstxt1: "From a user perspective, Bitcoin is nothing more than a mobile app or computer program that provides personal Bitcoin addresses and allows a user to send and receive bitcoins with them. This is how Bitcoin works for most users." + howitworkstxt2: "Behind the scenes, the Bitcoin network is sharing a public ledger called the \"block chain\". This ledger contains every transaction ever processed, allowing a user's computer to verify the validity of each transaction. The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures corresponding to the sending address, allowing all users to have full control over sending bitcoins from their own Bitcoin addresses. In addition, anyone can process transactions using the computing power of specialized hardware and earn a reward in bitcoins for this service. This is often called \"mining\". To learn more about Bitcoin, you can consult the dedicated page and the original paper." + used: "Is Bitcoin really used by people?" + usedtxt1: "Yes. There is a growing number of businesses and individuals using Bitcoin. This includes brick and mortar businesses like restaurants, apartments, law firms, and popular online services such as Namecheap, WordPress, Reddit and Flattr. While Bitcoin remains a relatively new phenomenon, it is growing fast. At the end of August 2013, the value of all bitcoins in circulation exceeded US$ 1.5 billion with millions of dollars worth of bitcoins exchanged daily." + acquire: "How does one acquire bitcoins?" + acquireli1: "As payment for goods or services." + acquireli2: "Purchase bitcoins at a Bitcoin exchange." + acquireli3: "Exchange bitcoins with someone near you." + acquireli4: "Earn bitcoins through competitive mining." + acquiretxt1: "While it is possible to find individuals who wish to sell bitcoins in exchange for a credit card or PayPal payment, most exchanges do not allow funding via these payment methods. This is due to repeated cases where someone pays for bitcoins with PayPal, and then successfully reverses the transaction. This is commonly referred to as a chargeback." + makepayment: "How difficult is it to make a Bitcoin payment?" + makepaymenttxt1: "Bitcoin payments are easier to make than debit or credit card purchases, and can be received without a merchant account. Payments are made from a wallet application, either on your computer or smartphone, by entering the recipient's address, the payment amount, and pressing send. To make it easier to enter a recipient's address, many wallets can obtain the address by scanning a QR code or touching two phones together with NFC technology. Of course, a simple copy/paste works too and many wallets also have an address book where the address can be saved." + advantages: "What are the advantages of Bitcoin?" + advantagesli1: "Payment freedom - It is possible to send and receive any amount of money instantly anywhere in the world at any time. No bank holidays. No borders. No imposed limits. Bitcoin allows its users to be in full control of their money." + advantagesli2: "Very low fees - Bitcoin payments are currently processed with either no fees or extremely small fees. Users may include fees with transactions to receive priority processing, which results in faster confirmation of transactions by the network. Additionally, merchant processors exist to assist merchants in processing transactions, converting bitcoins to fiat currency and depositing funds directly into merchants' bank accounts daily. As these services are based on Bitcoin, they can be offered for much lower fees and than with PayPal or credit card networks." + advantagesli3: "Fewer risks for merchants - Bitcoin transactions are secure, irreversible, and do not contain customers’ sensitive or personal information. This protects merchants from losses caused by fraud or fraudulent chargebacks, and there is no need for PCI compliance. Merchants can easily expand to new markets where either credit cards are not available or fraud rates are unacceptably high. The net results are lower fees, larger markets, and fewer administrative costs." + advantagesli4: "Security and control - Bitcoin users are in full control of their transactions; it is impossible for merchants to force unwanted or unnoticed charges as can happen with ACH debits, debit cards, PayPal, and credit cards. Bitcoin payments can be made without personal information tied to the transaction. This offers strong protection against identity theft. Bitcoin users can also protect their money with backup and encryption." + advantagesli5: "Transparent and neutral - All information concerning the Bitcoin money supply is readily available on the block chain for anybody to verify and use in real-time. No individual or organization can control or manipulate the Bitcoin protocol because it is cryptographically secure. This allows the core of Bitcoin to be trusted for being completely neutral, transparent and predictable." + disadvantages: "What are the disadvantages of Bitcoin?" + disadvantagesli1: "Degree of acceptance - Many people are still unaware of Bitcoin. Every day, more businesses accept bitcoins because they want the advantages of doing so, but the list remains small and still needs to grow in order to benefit from network effects." + disadvantagesli2: "Volatility - The total value of bitcoins in circulation and the number of businesses using Bitcoin are still very small compared to what they could be. Therefore, relatively small movements in the market can significantly affect the price. In theory, this volatility will decrease as Bitcoin markets and the technology matures. Never before has the world seen a start-up currency, so it is truly difficult (and exciting) to imagine how it will play out." + disadvantagesli3: "Ongoing development - Bitcoin software are still in beta with many incomplete features in active development. New tools, features, and services are being developed to make Bitcoin more secure and accessible to the masses. Some of these are still not ready for everyone. Most Bitcoin businesses are new and still offer no insurance. In general, Bitcoin is still in the process of maturing." + trust: "Why do people trust Bitcoin?" + trusttxt1: "Much of the trust in Bitcoin comes from the fact that it requires no trust at all. Bitcoin is fully open-source and decentralized. This means that anyone has access to the entire source code at any time. Any developer in the world can therefore verify exactly how Bitcoin works. All transactions and bitcoins issued into existence can be transparently consulted in real-time by anyone. All payments can be made without reliance on a third party and the whole system is protected by heavily peer-reviewed cryptographic algorithms like those used for online banking. No organization or individual can control Bitcoin, and the network remains secure even if not all of its users can be trusted." + makemoney: "Can I make money with Bitcoin?" + makemoneytxt1: "You should never expect to get rich with Bitcoin or any emerging technology. It is always important to be wary of anything that sounds too good to be true or disobeys basic economic rules." + makemoneytxt2: "Bitcoin is a growing space of innovation and there are business opportunities that also include risks. There is no guarantee that Bitcoin will continue to grow even though it has developed at a very fast rate so far. Investing time and resources on anything related to Bitcoin requires entrepreneurship. There are various ways to make money with Bitcoin such as mining, speculation or running new businesses. All of these methods are competitive and there is no guarantee of profit. It is up to each individual to make a proper evaluation of the costs and the risks involved in any such project." + virtual: "Is Bitcoin fully virtual and immaterial?" + virtualtxt1: "Bitcoin is as virtual as the credit cards and online banking networks people use everyday. Bitcoin can be used to pay online and in physical stores just like any other form of money. Bitcoins can also be exchanged in physical form such as the Casascius coins, but paying with a mobile phone remains more convenient. Bitcoin balances are stored in a large distributed network, and they cannot be fraudulently altered by anybody. In other words, Bitcoin users have exclusive control over their funds and bitcoins cannot vanish just because they are virtual." + anonymous: "Is Bitcoin anonymous?" + anonymoustxt1: "Bitcoin is designed to allow its users to send and receive payments with an acceptable level of privacy as well as any other form of money. Bitcoin is however not anonymous and cannot offer the same level of privacy as cash. The use of Bitcoin leaves extensive public records. Various mechanisms exist or are being developed to protect users' privacy. However, there is still work to be done before these features are used correctly by the majority of all Bitcoin users." + anonymoustxt2: "Some concerns have been raised that private transactions could be used for illegal purposes with Bitcoin. However, it is worth noting that Bitcoin will undoubtedly be subjected to similar regulations that are already in place inside existing financial systems. Bitcoin cannot be more anonymous than cash and it is not likely to prevent criminal investigations from being conducted. Additionally, Bitcoin is also designed to prevent a large range of financial crimes." + lost: "What happens when bitcoins are lost?" + losttxt1: "When a user loses his wallet, it has the effect of removing money out of circulation. Lost bitcoins still remain in the block chain just like any other bitcoins. However, lost bitcoins remain dormant forever because there is no way for anybody to find the private key that would allow them to be spent again. Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available, the ones that are left will be in higher demand and increase in value to compensate." + scale: "Can Bitcoin scale to become a major payment network?" + scaletxt1: "The Bitcoin network can already process a much higher number of transactions per second than today. It is however not entirely ready to scale to the level of a credit card network. Work is underway to lift current limitations, and future requirements are well known. Since inception, every aspect of the Bitcoin network has been in a continuous process of maturation, optimization, and specialization, and it should be expected to remain that way for years to come. As traffic grows, more Bitcoin users will use lightweight clients, and full network nodes will become a more specialized service. For more details, see the Scalability page on the Wiki." + legal: "Legal" + islegal: "Is Bitcoin legal?" + islegaltxt1: "To the best of our knowledge, Bitcoin has not been made illegal by legislation in any jurisdiction. However, some jurisdictions severely restrict or ban all foreign currency, like Argentina. Other jurisdictions may limit the licensing of certain entities such as Bitcoin exchanges, like Thailand." + islegaltxt2: "Regulators from various jurisdictions are taking steps to provide individuals and businesses with rules on how to integrate this new technology with the formal, regulated financial system. For example, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau in the United States Treasury Department, issued non-binding guidance on how it characterizes certain activities involving virtual currencies." + illegalactivities: "Is Bitcoin useful for illegal activities?" + illegalactivitiestxt1: "Bitcoin is money, and money has always been used both for legal and illegal purposes. Cash, credit cards and current banking systems widely surpass Bitcoin in terms of their use to finance crime. Bitcoin can bring significant innovation in payment systems and the benefits of such innovation are considered to be far beyond their potential drawbacks." + illegalactivitiestxt2: "Bitcoin is designed to be a huge step forward in making money more secure and could also act as significant protection against many forms of financial crime. For instance, bitcoins are completely impossible to counterfeit. Users are in full control of their payments and cannot receive unwanted charges like those used in credit card frauds. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible and immune to fraudulent chargebacks. Bitcoin allows money to be secured against theft and loss using very strong and useful mechanisms such as backups, encryption and multiple signatures." + illegalactivitiestxt3: "Some concerns have been raised that Bitcoin could be more attractive to criminals because it can be used to make private and irreversible payments. However, these features already exist with cash and wire transfer, which are widely used and well-established. The use of Bitcoin will undoubtedly be subjected to similar regulations that are already in place inside existing financial systems, and Bitcoin is not likely to prevent criminal investigations from being conducted. In general, it is common for important breakthroughs to be perceived as being controversial before their benefits are well understood. The Internet is a good example among many others to illustrate this." + regulated: "Can Bitcoin be regulated?" + regulatedtxt1: "The Bitcoin protocol itself cannot be modified against the will of its users as long as most of them remain free to choose what software they use. Attempting to assign special rights to a local authority in the rules of the global Bitcoin network is likely doomed not to succeed. Any rich organization could choose to invest in mining hardware to control half of the computing power of the network and become able to block or reverse recent transactions. However, there is no guarantee that they could retain this power since this requires to invest as much than all other miners in the world." + regulatedtxt2: "It is however possible to regulate the use of Bitcoin in a similar way to any other instrument. Just like the dollar, Bitcoin can be used for a wide variety of purposes, some of which can be considered legitimate or not as per each jurisdiction's laws. In this regard, Bitcoin is no different than any other tool or resource and can be subjected to different regulations in each country. Bitcoin use could also be made difficult by restrictive regulations, in which case it is hard to determine what percentage of users would keep using the technology. A government that chooses to ban Bitcoin would prevent domestic businesses and markets from developing, shifting innovation to other countries. The challenge for regulators, as always, is to develop efficient solutions while not impairing the growth of new emerging markets and businesses." + taxes: "What about Bitcoin and taxes?" + taxestxt1: "Bitcoin is not a fiat currency with legal tender status in any jurisdiction, but often tax liability accrues regardless of the medium used. There is a wide variety of legislation in many different jurisdictions which could cause income, sales, payroll, capital gains, or some other form of tax liability to arise with Bitcoin." + economy: "Economy" + bitcoinscreated: "How are bitcoins created?" + bitcoinscreatedtxt1: "New bitcoins are generated by a competitive and decentralized process called \"mining\". This process involves that individuals are rewarded by the network for their services. Bitcoin miners are processing transactions and securing the network using specialized hardware and are collecting new bitcoins in exchange." + bitcoinscreatedtxt2: "The Bitcoin protocol is designed in such a way that new bitcoins are created at a fixed rate. This makes Bitcoin mining a very competitive business. When more miners join the network, it becomes increasingly difficult to make a profit and miners must seek efficiency to cut their operating costs. No central authority or developer has any power to control or manipulate the system to increase their profits. Every Bitcoin node in the world will reject anything that does not comply with the rules it expects the system to follow." + bitcoinscreatedtxt3: "Bitcoins are created at a decreasing and predictable rate. The number of new bitcoins created each year is automatically halved over time until bitcoin issuance halts completely with a total of 21 million bitcoins in existence. At this point, Bitcoin miners will probably be supported exclusively by numerous small transaction fees." + whyvalue: "Why do bitcoins have value?" + whyvaluetxt1: "Bitcoins have value because they are useful as a form of money. Bitcoin has the characteristics of money (durability, portability, fungibility, scarcity, divisibility, and recognizability) based on the properties of mathematics rather than relying on physical properties (like gold and silver) or trust in central authorities (like fiat currencies). In short, Bitcoin is backed by mathematics. With these attributes, all that is required for a form of money to hold value is trust and adoption. In the case of Bitcoin, this can be measured by its growing base of users, merchants and startups. As with all currency, bitcoin's value comes only and directly from people willing to accept them as payment." + whatprice: "What determines Bitcoin’s price?" + whatpricetxt1: "The price of a bitcoin is determined by supply and demand. When demand for bitcoins increases, the price increases, and when demand falls, the price falls. There is only a limited number of bitcoins in circulation and new bitcoins are created at a predictable and decreasing rate, which means that demand must follow this level of inflation to keep the price stable. Because Bitcoin is still a relatively small market compared to what it could be, it doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus the price of a bitcoin is still very volatile." + whatpriceimg1: "Bitcoin price, 2011 to 2013:" + worthless: "Can bitcoins become worthless?" + worthlesstxt1: "Yes. History is littered with currencies that failed and are no longer used, such as the German Mark during the Wiemar Republic and, more recently, the Zimbabwean dollar. Although previous currency failures were typically due to hyperinflation of a kind that Bitcoin makes impossible, there is always potential for technical failures, competing currencies, political issues and so on. As a basic rule of thumb, no currency should be considered absolutely safe from failures or hard times. Bitcoin has proven reliable for years since its inception and there is a lot of potential for Bitcoin to continue to grow. However, no one is in a position to predict what the future will be for Bitcoin." + bubble: "Is Bitcoin a bubble?" + bubbletxt1: "A fast rise in price does not constitute a bubble. An artificial over-valuation that will lead to a sudden downward correction constitutes a bubble. Choices based on individual human action by hundreds of thousands of market participants is the cause for bitcoin's price to fluctuate as the market seeks price discovery. Reasons for changes in sentiment may include a loss of confidence in Bitcoin, a large difference between value and price not based on the fundamentals of the Bitcoin economy, increased press coverage stimulating speculative demand, fear of uncertainty, and old-fashioned irrational exuberance and greed." + ponzi: "Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?" + ponzitxt1: "A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money, or the money paid by subsequent investors, instead of from profit earned by the individuals running the business." + ponzitxt2: "Bitcoin is an open-source software project with no central authority and consequently no one is in a position to make fraudulent representations about investment returns. Like other major currencies such as gold, United States dollars, Euros, Yen, etc. there is no guaranteed purchasing power and the exchange rate floats freely. This leads to volatility where owners of bitcoins can unpredictably make or lose money. Beyond speculation, Bitcoin is also a payment system with useful and competitive attributes that are being used by thousands of users and businesses." + earlyadopter: "Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters?" + earlyadoptertxt1: "Some early adopters have large numbers of bitcoins because they took risks and invested time and resources in an unproven technology that was hardly used by anyone and that was much harder to secure properly. Many early adopters spent large numbers of bitcoins quite a few times before they became valuable or bought only small amounts and didn't make huge gains. There is no guarantee that the price of a bitcoin will increase or drop. This is very similar to investing in an early startup that can either gain value through its usefulness and popularity, or just never break through. Bitcoin is still in its infancy, and it has been designed with a very long-term view; it is hard to imagine how it could be less biased towards early adopters, and today's users may or may not be the early adopters of tomorrow." + finitelimitation: "Won't the finite amount of bitcoins be a limitation?" + finitelimitationtxt1: "Bitcoin is unique in that only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created. However, this will never be a limitation because bitcoins can be divided up to 8 decimal places ( 0.000 000 01 BTC ) and potentially even smaller units if that is ever required in the future. As the average transaction size decreases, transactions can be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin, such as mBTC ( 0.001 BTC ), µBTC ( 0.000 001 BTC ) or satoshis ( 0.000 000 01 BTC )." + deflationaryspiral: "Won't Bitcoin fall in a deflationary spiral?" + deflationaryspiraltxt1: "The deflationary spiral theory says that if prices are expected to fall, people will move purchases into the future in order to benefit from the lower prices. That fall in demand will in turn cause merchants to lower their prices to try and stimulate demand, making the problem worse and leading to an economic depression." + deflationaryspiraltxt2: "Although this theory is a popular way to justify inflation amongst central bankers, it does not appear to always hold true and is considered controversial amongst economists. Consumer electronics is one example of a market where prices constantly fall but which is not in depression. Similarly, the value of bitcoins has risen over time and yet the size of the Bitcoin economy has also grown dramatically along with it. Because both the value of the currency and the size of its economy started at zero in 2009, Bitcoin is a counterexample to the theory showing that it must sometimes be wrong." + deflationaryspiraltxt3: "Notwithstanding this, Bitcoin is not designed to be a deflationary currency. It is more accurate to say Bitcoin is intended to inflate in its early years, and become stable in its later years. The only time the quantity of bitcoins in circulation will drop is if people carelessly lose their wallets by failing to make backups. With a stable monetary base and a stable economy, the value of the currency should remain the same." + speculationvolatility: "Isn't speculation and volatility a problem for Bitcoin?" + speculationvolatilitytxt1: "This is a chicken and egg situation. For Bitcoin price to stabilize, a large scale economy needs to develop with more businesses and users. For a large scale economy to develop, businesses and users will seek for price stability." + speculationvolatilitytxt2: "Fortunately, volatility does not affect the main benefits of Bitcoin as a payment system to transfer money from point A to point B. It is possible for businesses to convert bitcoin payments to their local currency instantly, allowing them to profit from the advantages of Bitcoin without being subjected to price fluctuations. Since Bitcoin offers many useful and unique features and properties, many users choose to use Bitcoin. With such solutions and incentives, it is possible that Bitcoin will mature and develop to a degree where price volatility will become limited." + buyall: "What if someone bought up all the existing bitcoins?" + buyalltxt1: "Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. Bitcoin markets are competitive, meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand. Additionally, new bitcoins will continue to be issued for decades to come. Therefore even the most determined buyer could not buy all the bitcoins in existence. This situation isn't to suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation; it doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset." + bettercurrency: "What if someone creates a better digital currency?" + bettercurrencytxt1: "That can happen. For now, Bitcoin remains by far the most popular decentralized virtual currency, but there can be no guarantee that it will retain that position. There is already a set of alternative currencies inspired by Bitcoin. It is however probably correct to assume that significant improvements would be required for a new currency to overtake Bitcoin in terms of established market, even though this remains unpredictable. Bitcoin could also conceivably adopt improvements of a competing currency so long as it doesn't change fundamental parts of the protocol." + transactions: "Transactions" + tenminutes: "Why do I have to wait 10 minutes?" + tenminutestxt1: "Receiving a payment is almost instant with Bitcoin. However, there is a 10 minutes delay on average before the network begins to confirm your transaction by including it in a block and before you can spend the bitcoins you receive. A confirmation means that there is a consensus on the network that the bitcoins you received haven't been sent to anyone else and are considered your property. Once your transaction has been included in one block, it will continue to be buried under every block after it, which will exponentially consolidate this consensus and decrease the risk of a reversed transaction. Every user is free to determine at what point they consider a transaction confirmed, but 6 confirmations is often considered to be as safe as waiting 6 months on a credit card transaction." + fee: "How much will the transaction fee be?" + feetxt1: "Most transactions can be processed without fees, but users are encouraged to pay a small voluntary fee for faster confirmation of their transactions and to remunerate miners. When fees are required, they generally don't exceed a few pennies in value. Your Bitcoin client will usually try to estimate an appropriate fee when required." + feetxt2: "Transaction fees are used as a protection against users sending transactions to overload the network. The precise manner in which fees work is still being developed and will change over time. Because the fee is not related to the amount of bitcoins being sent, it may seem extremely low (0.0005 BTC for a 1,000 BTC transfer) or unfairly high (0.004 BTC for a 0.02 BTC payment). The fee is defined by attributes such as data in transaction and transaction recurrence. For example, if you are receiving a large number of tiny amounts, then fees for sending will be higher. Such payments are comparable to paying a restaurant bill using only pennies. Spending small fractions of your bitcoins rapidly may also require a fee. If your activity follows the pattern of conventional transactions, the fees should remain very low." + poweredoff: "What if I receive a bitcoin when my computer is powered off?" + poweredofftxt1: "This works fine. The bitcoins will appear next time you start your wallet application. Bitcoins are not actually received by the software on your computer, they are appended to a public ledger that is shared between all the devices on the network. If you are sent coins when your wallet client program is not running and you later launch it, it will download blocks and catch up with any transactions it did not already know about, and the coins will eventually appear as if they were just received in realtime. Your wallet is only needed when you wish to spend coins." + sync: "What does \"synchronizing\" mean and why does it take so long?" + synctxt1: "Long synchronization time is only required with full node clients like Bitcoin-Qt. Technically speaking, synchronizing is the process of downloading and verifying all previous Bitcoin transactions on the network. For a Bitcoin client to calculate the spendable balance of your Bitcoin addresses and make new transactions, it needs to be aware of all previous transactions. This step can be resource intensive and requires sufficient bandwidth and storage to accommodate the full size of the block chain. For Bitcoin to remain secure, enough people should keep using full node clients because they perform the task of validating and relaying transactions." + mining: "Mining" + whatismining: "What is Bitcoin mining?" + whatisminingtxt1: "Mining is the process of spending computing power to process transactions, secure the network, and keep everyone in the system synchronized together. It can be perceived like the Bitcoin data center except that it has been designed to be fully decentralized with miners operating in all countries and no individual having control over the network. This process is referred to as \"mining\" as an analogy to gold mining because it is also a temporary mechanism used to issue new bitcoins. Unlike gold mining, however, Bitcoin mining provides a reward in exchange for useful services required to operate a secure payment network. Mining will still be required after the last bitcoin is issued." + howminingworks: "How does Bitcoin mining work?" + howminingworkstxt1: "Anybody can become a Bitcoin miner by running software with specialized hardware. Mining software listens for transactions broadcast through the peer-to-peer network and performs appropriate tasks to process and confirm these transactions. Bitcoin miners perform this work because they can earn transaction fees paid by users for faster transaction processing, and newly created bitcoins issued into existence according to a fixed formula." + howminingworkstxt2: "For new transactions to be confirmed, they need to be included in a block along with mathematic proofs of work. Such proofs are very hard to generate because there is no way to create them other than by trying billions of random calculations per second. This requires miners to perform these calculations before their blocks are accepted by the network and before they are rewarded. As more people start to mine, the difficulty of finding valid blocks is automatically increased by the network to ensure that the average time to find a block remains equal to 10 minutes. As a result, mining is a very competitive business where no individual miner can control what is included in the block chain." + howminingworkstxt3: "Proofs of work are also designed to depend on the previous block to force a chronological order in the block chain. This makes it exponentially difficult to reverse previous transactions because this requires the recalculation of the proofs of work of all the subsequent blocks. When two blocks are found at the same time, miners work on the first block they receive and switch to the longest chain of blocks as soon as the next block is found. This allows mining to secure and maintain a global consensus based on processing power." + howminingworkstxt4: "Bitcoin miners are neither able to cheat by increasing their own reward nor process fraudulent transactions that could corrupt the Bitcoin network because all Bitcoin nodes would reject any block that contains invalid data as per the rules of the Bitcoin protocol. Consequently, the network remains secure even if not all Bitcoin miners can be trusted." + miningwaste: "Isn't Bitcoin mining a waste of energy?" + miningwastetxt1: "Spending energy to secure and operate a payment system is hardly a waste. Like any other payment service, the use of Bitcoin entails processing costs. Services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks, credit cards, and armored vehicles, also use a lot of energy. Although unlike Bitcoin, their total energy consumption is not transparent and cannot be measured." + miningwastetxt2: "Bitcoin mining has been designed to become more optimized over time with specialized hardware consuming less energy, and the operating costs of mining should continue to be proportional to demand. When Bitcoin mining becomes too competitive and less profitable, some miners choose to stop their activities. Furthermore, all energy expended mining is eventually transformed into heat, and the most profitable miners will be those who have put this heat to good use. An optimally efficient mining network is one that isn't actually consuming any extra energy. While this is an ideal, the economics of mining are such that miners individually strive toward it." + miningsecure: "How does mining help secure Bitcoin?" + miningsecuretxt1: "Mining creates the equivalent of a competitive lottery that makes it very difficult for anyone to consecutively add new blocks of transactions into the block chain. This protects the neutrality of the network by preventing any individual from gaining the power to block certain transactions. This also prevents any individual from replacing parts of the block chain to roll back their own spends, which could be used to defraud other users. Mining makes it exponentially more difficult to reverse a past transaction by requiring the rewriting of all blocks following this transaction." + miningstart: "What do I need to start mining?" + miningstarttxt1: "In the early days of Bitcoin, anyone could find a new block using their computer's CPU. As more and more people started mining, the difficulty of finding new blocks increased greatly to the point where the only cost-effective method of mining today is using specialized hardware (ex. ASICs). You can visit BitcoinMining.com for more information." + security: "Security" + secure: "Is Bitcoin secure?" + securetxt1: "The Bitcoin technology - the protocol and the cryptography - has a strong security track record, and the Bitcoin network is probably the biggest distributed computing project in the world. Bitcoin's vulnerability is in user error. Bitcoin wallet files that store the necessary private keys can be accidentally deleted, lost or stolen. This is pretty similar to physical cash stored in a digital form. Fortunately, users can employ sound security practices to protect their money or use service providers that offer good levels of security and insurance against theft or loss." + hacked: "Hasn't Bitcoin been hacked in the past?" + hackedtxt1: "The rules of the protocol and the cryptography used for Bitcoin are still working years after its inception, which is a good indication that the concept is well designed. However, security flaws have been found and fixed over time in various software implementations. Like any other form of software, the security of Bitcoin software depends on the speed with which problems are found and fixed. The more such issues are discovered, the more Bitcoin is gaining maturity." + hackedtxt2: "There are often misconceptions about thefts and security breaches that happened on diverse exchanges and businesses. Although these events are unfortunate, none of them involve Bitcoin being hacked or reflect inherent flaws in Bitcoin; just like a bank robbery doesn't mean that the dollar is compromised. However, it is accurate to say that a complete set of good practices and intuitive security solutions is needed to give users better protection of their money, and to reduce the general risk of theft and loss. Over the course of the last few years, such security features have quickly developed, such as wallet encryption, offline wallets, hardware wallets, and multi-signature transactions." + collude: "Could users collude against Bitcoin?" + colludetxt1: "It is not possible to change the Bitcoin protocol that easily. Any Bitcoin client that doesn't comply with the same rules cannot enforce their own rules on other users. As per the current specification, double spending is not possible on the same block chain, and neither is spending bitcoins without a valid signature. Therefore, It is not possible to generate uncontrolled amounts of bitcoins out of thin air, spend other users' funds, corrupt the network, or anything similar." + colludetxt2: "However, a majority of miners could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." + quantum: "Is Bitcoin vulnerable to quantum computing?" + quantumtxt1: "Yes, and so are all systems relying on cryptography in general, including current banking systems. However, quantum computers don't yet exist and probably won't for a while. In the event that quantum computing could be an imminent threat to Bitcoin, the protocol could be upgraded to use post-quantum algorithms. Given the importance that this update would have, it can be safely expected that it would be highly reviewed by developers and adopted by all Bitcoin users." + help: "Help" + morehelp: "I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?" + morehelptxt1: "You can find more information and help on the resources and community pages or on the Wiki FAQ." getting-started: title: "Getting started - Bitcoin" pagetitle: "Getting started with Bitcoin" @@ -391,7 +497,6 @@ en: blockchain: the Block chain blockchaintxt: (a shared public transaction log) layout: - menu-about: About menu-about-us: "About bitcoin.org" menu-bitcoin-for-businesses: Businesses menu-bitcoin-for-developers: Developers @@ -399,6 +504,7 @@ en: menu-community: Community menu-development: Development menu-events: Events + menu-faq: FAQ menu-foundation: Foundation menu-getting-started: "Getting started" menu-how-it-works: "How it works" @@ -422,6 +528,7 @@ en: development: development download: download events: events + faq: faq getting-started: getting-started how-it-works: how-it-works innovation: innovation @@ -446,3 +553,56 @@ en: privatekey: private-key signature: signature wallet: wallet + faq: + general: general + whatisbitcoin: what-is-bitcoin + creator: who-created-bitcoin + whocontrols: who-controls-the-bitcoin-network + howitworks: how-does-bitcoin-work + acquire: how-does-one-acquire-bitcoins + used: "is-bitcoin-really-used-by-people" + makepayment: how-difficult-is-it-to-make-a-bitcoin-payment + advantages: what-are-the-advantages-of-bitcoin + disadvantages: what-are-the-disadvantages-of-bitcoin + trust: why-do-people-trust-bitcoin + makemoney: can-i-make-money-with-bitcoin + virtual: is-bitcoin-fully-virtual-and-immaterial + anonymous: is-bitcoin-anonymous + lost: what-happens-when-bitcoins-are-lost + scale: can-bitcoin-scale-to-become-a-major-payment-network + legal: legal + islegal: is-bitcoin-legal + illegalactivities: is-bitcoin-useful-for-illegal-activities + regulated: can-bitcoin-be-regulated + taxes: what-about-bitcoin-and-taxes + economy: economy + bitcoinscreated: how-are-bitcoins-created + whyvalue: why-do-bitcoins-have-value + whatprice: what-determines-bitcoins-price + worthless: can-bitcoins-become-worthless + bubble: is-bitcoin-a-bubble + ponzi: is-bitcoin-a-ponzi-scheme + earlyadopter: doesnt-bitcoin-unfairly-benefit-early-adopters + finitelimitation: wont-the-finite-amount-of-bitcoins-be-a-limitation + deflationaryspiral: wont-bitcoin-fall-in-a-deflationary-spiral + speculationvolatility: isnt-speculation-and-volatility-a-problem-for-bitcoin + buyall: what-if-someone-bought-up-all-the-existing-bitcoins + bettercurrency: what-if-someone-creates-a-better-digital-currency + transactions: transactions + tenminutes: why-do-i-have-to-wait-10-minutes + fee: how-much-will-the-transaction-fee-be + poweredoff: what-if-i-receive-a-bitcoin-when-my-computer-is-powered-off + sync: what-does-synchronizing-mean-and-why-does-it-take-so-long + mining: mining + whatismining: what-is-bitcoin-mining + howminingworks: how-does-bitcoin-mining-work + miningwaste: isnt-bitcoin-mining-a-waste-of-energy + miningsecure: how-does-mining-help-secure-bitcoin + miningstart: what-do-i-need-to-start-mining + security: security + secure: is-bitcoin-secure + hacked: hasnt-bitcoin-been-hacked-in-the-past + collude: could-users-collude-against-bitcoin + quantum: is-bitcoin-vulnerable-to-quantum-computing + help: help + morehelp: more-help diff --git a/en/press.html b/en/press.html index 23632e16..76fdffda 100755 --- a/en/press.html +++ b/en/press.html @@ -12,77 +12,7 @@ dialogs: volunteerdiscl: "Bitcoin has no official organization, individuals with authority, nor spokespeople. Read more" volunteerdiscltext: "The Bitcoin project is open-source and, likewise, no one can speak with authority for Bitcoin. The Bitcoin community contains individuals who hold a wide spectrum of business experience or involvement, political ideas, personal opinions, technical competency, and style. This list of potential interviewees has been curated by Bitcoin community members with the intent to include individuals possessing a wide spectrum of experience, ideas, and geography. The individuals listed have been involved in the Bitcoin community for a significant period making tangible contributions, have demonstrated competence and professionalism when discussing Bitcoin, are flexible and willing to assist members of the press in both objective and persuasive ways, and are generally respected by other members of the Bitcoin community. However, an individual's appearance here should not be misconstrued as a general endorsement, either by the Bitcoin community or any particular individuals with, regards to potential interviewees and any businesses they may operate, nor any political or personal ideas they may expound, including prognostications about Bitcoin or the price or any other topic." faq: "Facts, FAQs and Myths" - faqwhat: "What is Bitcoin?" - faqwhattxt: "Bitcoin is an Internet protocol and open-source software platform that enables a new, completely digital and decentralized currency called bitcoins (BTC)." - faqacquire: "How does one acquire bitcoins?" - faqacquiretxt1: "Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services." - faqacquiretxt2: "Buy bitcoins at one of the Bitcoin Exchanges." - faqacquiretxt3: "Trade traditional currency for bitcoins using one of several services." - faqacquiretxt4: "Trade traditional currency for bitcoins face to face using a local directory." - faqacquiretxt5: "Earn bitcoins through competitive mining." - faqhow: "How does Bitcoin work?" - faqhowtxt: "Bitcoin is a triple entry bookkeeping system where a public ledger of every Bitcoin transaction is validated and distributed in real-time through the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network. The whole network is secured and regulated through cryptography. Anyone can process transactions using computer processing power, often with specialized hardware, and potentially earn a reward in bitcoins for this service. This is often called \"bitcoin mining\"." - faqmining: "How does Bitcoin mining work?" - faqminingtxt1: "Bitcoin miners perform a function that is analogous to gold mining, but very different. While gold miners deal with rocks, Bitcoin miners deal with data." - faqminingtxt2: "Bitcoin mining is the mechanism that keeps everyone in the system synchronized together. To mine, computers that take part listen for transactions (ledger transfer announcements) broadcast through the peer-to-peer network. The miners process and confirm these transactions by including them in a block and adding the block to the block chain." - faqminingtxt3: "Bitcoin miners perform this labor because miners that solve a block earn (1) any transaction fees paid by customers for faster transaction processing and (2) newly created coins, issued into existence according to a fixed formula." - faqminingtxt4: "Bitcoin mining is a very competitive market. Bitcoin miners are neither able to increase their own block reward beyond the rules in the protocol nor process fraudulent transactions that could corrupt the Bitcoin network. Because anyone can become a Bitcoin miner and the Bitcoin network is the largest distributed computer network in the world, it is extremely improbable that a malicious Bitcoin miner could compromise the block chain. Thus, Bitcoin mining is used to protect the neutrality and the consensus of the network, even if not all Bitcoin miners can be trusted." - faqdifficult: "How difficult is it to make a Bitcoin payment?" - faqdifficulttxt: "Bitcoin payments are easier to make than any existing banking or credit card process. Payments are made from a wallet application, either on your computer or smartphone, by entering the recipient's address. This can be done by scanning a QR code, touching two phones together with NFC technology, or copying and pasting, entering the amount, and pressing send." - faqadvantage: "What are the advantages of Bitcoin?" - faqadvantagetxt1: "Unrestrained payments - It is possible to send and receive any amount of money anywhere in the world at any time. No bank holidays. No borders. No imposed limits." - faqadvantagetxt2: "Low or zero fees - Bitcoin payments are currently processed with either no fees or extremely small fees. Users may include fees with transactions to receive priority processing, which results in faster confirmation of transactions by the network. Additionally, merchant processors exist to assist merchants in processing transactions, converting bitcoins to fiat currencies with daily direct deposits to bank accounts, and to provide these services for much lower fees and less risk than with PayPal or credit card networks." - faqadvantagetxt3: "Fewer fees and risks for merchants - Bitcoin transactions are secure, irreversible, and do not contain customers’ sensitive or personal information. This protects merchants from losses caused by fraud or fraudulent chargebacks and there is no need for PCI compliance. Consequently, merchants can easily expand to new markets where either credit cards are not available or fraud rates are unacceptably high. The net results are lower fees, larger markets, and fewer administrative costs." - faqadvantagetxt4: "More protection for consumers - Bitcoin payments are made without needing the personal information tied to the transaction. This offers strong protection against identity theft. Users are in full control of their transactions, therefore it is impossible for merchants to force unwanted or unnoticed charges - this can happen with ACH debits, debit cards, PayPal, and credit cards." - faqadvantagetxt5: "Transparency - All information concerning the Bitcoin money supply is readily available on the block chain for anybody to see, verify, measure, and use in real-time." - faqadvantagetxt6: "Distributed - The Bitcoin ledger, commonly called the block chain, is distributed throughout the world and stored by Bitcoin miners. This adds a level of resiliency and redundancy that is unmatched in the payments space and a payment processing network. For example, the Federal Reserve does all their payment processing at 100 Orchard Street, East Rutherford, New Jersey and it has back-up systems that can be brought online within 60-90 minutes at the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Dallas. If those three centers were compromised or destroyed then the entire monetary system of the Federal Reserve would be greatly impaired and probably completely non-functional." - faqdisadvantage: "What are the disadvantages of Bitcoin?" - faqdisadvantagetxt1: "Not widely accepted - Many people are still unaware of Bitcoin. Every day more businesses accept bitcoins because they want the advantages of doing so, but the list remains small and still needs to grow in order to gain improved usefulness through networking effects." - faqdisadvantagetxt2: "Volatile - The total value of bitcoins in circulation and the number of businesses using Bitcoin are still very small compared to what they could be. Therefore, relatively small movements in the market can significantly affect the price. In theory, this volatility will persist as the market scrambles to determine a bitcoin’s price and as this new currency matures. Never before has the world seen a start-up currency, so it is truly difficult (and exciting) to imagine how it will play out." - faqdisadvantagetxt3: "For geeks - Many of the user tools are still not ready for everyone and users still need to protect their money by themselves, or trust young online wallet services that still don’t offer any insurance against theft or other bad events. New tools and services are constantly being developed to make Bitcoin more accessible to the masses. From now, Bitcoin is a bright new invention that starts to meet the real world." - faqsecure: "Is Bitcoin secure?" - faqsecuretxt: "The Bitcoin technology - the protocol and the cryptography - has a strong security track record. Bitcoin's vulnerability is in user error. Bitcoin wallet files that store the necessary private keys can be accidentally deleted, lost, stolen, or compromised. Consequently, users need to employ security practices to protect their money or use service providers that offer good levels of security and insurance. As more people have adopted Bitcoin, more service providers have appeared to make it easier, safer, and more convenient to use and safely secure bitcoins. Bitcoins are not covered by insurance schemes or depositor insurance like the FDIC, but users' wallets could be with a service provider that offers that provision." - faqlegal: "Is Bitcoin legal?" - faqlegaltxt1: "To the best of our knowledge, Bitcoin has not been made illegal by legislation in any jurisdiction." - faqlegaltxt2: "Additionally, regulators from various jurisdictions have taken steps to provide individuals and businesses with rules on how to integrate this new technology into businesses and other activities. For example, the United States' FinCEN has issued non-binding and non-determinative guidance on how it characterizes certain activities involving virtual currencies." - faqlegalresource: "Useful resources:" - faqtax: "What about Bitcoin and taxes?" - faqtaxtxt: "Bitcoin is not a fiat currency with legal tender status in any jurisdiction, but often tax liability accrues regardless of the medium used. There is a wide variety of legislation in many different jurisdictions which could cause income, sales, payroll, capital gains, or some other form of tax liability to arise with Bitcoin. Because all transactions are public record and stored permanently, it is a bad idea to attempt to use Bitcoin to evade taxes." - faqillegal: "Is Bitcoin useful for illegal activities?" - faqillegaltxt1: "Bitcoin is a censorship-resistant technology. This means transactions cannot be stopped. However, it is not anonymous, and the use of Bitcoin leaves extensive and permanent public records." - faqillegaltxt2: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded on page two of the report Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Unique Features Present Distinct Challenges for Deterring Illicit Activity that ‘The FBI assesses with low confidence, based on current user and vendor acceptance, that malicious actors will exploit Bitcoin to launder money.’" - faqillegaltxt3: "Bitcoin prevents many criminals from being able to engage in illegal behavior. Because of the way Bitcoin works, customers do not need to reveal personal information to merchants. This decreases the amount of data available to illegal actors and acts as significant protection against identity theft, credit card fraud, and several other attack vectors. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible which prevents chargebacks or frauds, and transaction traceability means it is impossible to counterfeit bitcoins." - faqillegaltxt4: "Additionally, law enforcement authorities have already begun using sophisticated techniques to analyze Bitcoin transactions in their criminal investigations. So it may be that the Bitcoin software is not very attractive for criminal enterprises." - faqbubble: "Is Bitcoin a bubble?" - faqbubbletxt1: "A fast rise in price does not constitute a bubble. An artificial over-valuation that will suddenly downward correct constitutes a bubble." - faqbubbletxt2: "Choices based on individual human action by hundreds of thousands of market participants is the cause for Bitcoin's price to fluctuate as the market seeks price discovery. Some reasons for this change in sentiment may be a loss of confidence in the currency, a large difference between value and price not based on the fundamentals of the Bitcoin economy, excessive press coverage stimulating speculative demand, fear of uncertainty, and just old-fashioned irrational exuberance and greed." - faqjune: "Why did Bitcoin’s price crash in June 2011?" - faqjunetxt: "Choices based on individual human action by hundreds of thousands of market participants was the cause for Bitcoin's price crash in June 2011. Some reasons for this change in sentiment may be a loss of confidence in the currency, the largest exchange, MtGox, having a security incident, a large difference between value and price from the large amount of press coverage which stimulated speculative demand not based on the fundamentals of the Bitcoin economy, and just old fashioned irrational exuberance and greed." - faqprice: "What determines Bitcoin’s price?" - faqpricetxt: "The price of bitcoins is determined by supply and demand. The supply is fixed at 21 million because of the rules of the Bitcoin protocol. There are two main types of demand: speculative and transactional. As more people use bitcoins for transactions, demand will increase and so will the price of bitcoins. Likewise, as more people speculate on the future of Bitcoin by saving or hoarding bitcoins, this increases the demand for bitcoins and the price. The result is an increase of network effects and increased adoption." - faqponzi: "Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?" - faqponzitxt1: "A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money, or the money paid by subsequent investors, instead of from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation." - faqponzitxt2: "Bitcoin is an open-source software project with no central authority and consequently no one is in a position to make fraudulent representations about investment returns. Like other major currencies such as gold, United States dollars, Euros, Yen, etc. there is no guaranteed purchasing power and the exchange rate freely floats. This can lead to volatility where owners of bitcoins can make or lose value." - faqponzitxt3: "Bitcoin is an innovative currency and payment system and not a Ponzi scheme. However, since Bitcoin transactions are irreversible it can be attractive for a Ponzi scam operator, and there have been several notable Ponzi scams which have failed and did use Bitcoin." - faqsatoshi: "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?" - faqsatoshitxt: "The creator of Bitcoin never revealed his real identity and simply left his invention to the world. Satoshi created the first Bitcoin implementation and remained active in the development for a few years before choosing to leave the project. Meanwhile, a strong community of developers, miners, users, and supporters have spontaneously emerged to continue the project." - faqworthless: "Can bitcoins become worthless?" - faqworthlesstxt1: "Yes. There are thousands of currencies in the fiat currency graveyard as a result of hyperinflation, such as the German Mark, United States gold and silver certificates, Argentine Peso, and, more recently, the Zimbabwe Dollar. Unlike a physical currency, such as gold, Bitcoin is a completely virtual currency. While Bitcoin was designed to be censorship-resistant, to enable it to continue existing if there were to be some type of technological problem of significant severity, it is still possible, although more unlikely every day, that Bitcoin could stop working as intended. Then all bitcoins could become worthless." - faqworthlesstxt2: "Being an open-source project allows anyone to contribute software code and those with value stored in bitcoins have a strong financial incentive in making sure Bitcoin continues to exist. For example, there has been only one major security incident in the protocol and it was fixed in August 2010. While there have been no major incidents since that does not preclude the possibility that there could be others. There was an unanticipated \"hard fork\" on 12 March 2013 which was quickly resolved with minimal impact on Bitcoin users. But the longer Bitcoin exists without a major security incident, or other unanticipated software bugs, then the more likely market participants will gain greater confidence in Bitcoin." - faqworthlesstxt3: "As a payment tool bitcoins are like gold because bitcoins are no-one’s liability, and Bitcoin transactions are not subject to the same counterparty risk like traditional banks engaged in fractional reserve banking. Thus, using Bitcoin can help protect merchants and users from bank failures and Cyprus-style problems. Bitcoin empowers its users to have exclusive control of their funds." - faqvirtual: "Is Bitcoin virtual and immaterial?" - faqvirtualtxt1: "Bitcoin is as virtual as the credit cards and online banking networks that people are using every day. They are both a balance stored in a network." - faqvirtualtxt2: "While Bitcoin is better suited for use on the Internet than other payment systems, Bitcoin can also be used to pay in physical stores, just like real money." - faqvirtualtxt3: "Bitcoin users have exclusive control over their funds. Bitcoin balances are stored in an extremely large, decentralized distributed computer network and they cannot be fraudulently altered by anybody. In other terms, bitcoins cannot vanish or be seized by any means. But they can be stolen or lost due to users' mistakes." - faqtrust: "Why do people trust Bitcoin?" - faqtrusttxt1: "Bitcoin is open-source software, which means that everyone has access to all of the source code all of the time. The rules of the system are embedded into the source code and the participants all impose those rules on each other simultaneously. To change the system would require everyone to switch to a new version of the software that used different rules, and because Bitcoin users are spread across the world, it is outside the power of any single jurisdictional authority to mandate such a change." - faqtrusttxt2: "Cryptography is well established and a fundamental technology used in online banking. But unlike fiat currency with central banks and online banking with heavily peer-reviewed cryptographic ciphers, Bitcoin has been able to construct a currency and payment network that removes the need to trust a central authority." - faqtrusttxt3: "Consequently, many people trust Bitcoin because it requires absolutely no trust at all." - faqanonymous: "Bitcoin is an anonymous currency?" - faqanonymoustxt1: "Bitcoin is a censorship-resistant technology. It is not anonymous but it is pseudo-anonymous. The use of Bitcoin leaves extensive and permanent public records for each transaction. All transactions can be traced since their origin and IP addresses are permanently logged by organizations listening on the network. All of this information can easily be accessed by competitors, law enforcement, or anyone else." - faqanonymoustxt2: "However, there are a few technically difficult and costly methods that can enable users to interact with Bitcoin in very private ways. The Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded on page two of the report Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Unique Features Present Distinct Challenges for Deterring Illicit Activity that ‘The FBI assesses with low confidence, based on current user and vendor acceptance, that malicious actors will exploit Bitcoin to launder money.’" - faqanonymoustxt3: "Transactions are difficult to conceal from best practices in network data analysis, data mining, and forensic accounting techniques. In most transactions, personal information must be revealed to receive the goods or services from an order. This makes keeping full anonymity with Bitcoin transactions very difficult or impossible." - faqmore: "For more FAQ on Bitcoin, please visit the Bitcoin Wiki." + faqmore: "To learn more about Bitcoin, please visit the complete FAQ or the Bitcoin Wiki." materialvideo: "Videos" materialvideoformat: "More formats and languages" materialvideoyoutube: "Video on Youtube" @@ -246,165 +176,154 @@ dialogs:
- {{ page.dialogs.faqwhat }}
+ {% translate whatisbitcoin faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqwhattxt }}
+{% translate whatisbitcointxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqacquire }}
+ {% translate howitworks faq %}
+
+
+
+{% translate howitworkstxt1 faq %}
+{% translate howitworkstxt2 faq %}
+
+ {% translate whatismining faq %}
+
+
+
+{% translate whatisminingtxt1 faq %}
+
+ {% translate acquire faq %}
+
+-
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqacquiretxt1 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqacquiretxt2 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqacquiretxt3 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqacquiretxt4 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqacquiretxt5 }} +
- {% translate acquireli1 faq %} +
- {% translate acquireli2 faq %} +
- {% translate acquireli3 faq %} +
- {% translate acquireli4 faq %} +
{% translate acquiretxt1 faq %}
+
+ {% translate used faq %}
+
+
+
+{% translate usedtxt1 faq %}
+
+
+
+ {% translate makepayment faq %}
+
+
+
+{% translate makepaymenttxt1 faq %}
+
+ {% translate advantages faq %}
+
+
-
+
- {% translate advantagesli1 faq %} +
- {% translate advantagesli2 faq %} +
- {% translate advantagesli3 faq %} +
- {% translate advantagesli4 faq %} +
- {% translate advantagesli5 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqhow }}
-
-
-
-{{ page.dialogs.faqhowtxt }}
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqmining }}
-
-
-
-{{ page.dialogs.faqminingtxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqminingtxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqminingtxt3 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqminingtxt4 }}
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqdifficult }}
-
-
-
-{{ page.dialogs.faqdifficulttxt }}
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantage }}
+ {% translate disadvantages faq %}
-
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantagetxt1 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantagetxt2 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantagetxt3 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantagetxt4 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantagetxt5 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqadvantagetxt6 }} +
- {% translate disadvantagesli1 faq %} +
- {% translate disadvantagesli2 faq %} +
- {% translate disadvantagesli3 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqdisadvantage }}
+ {% translate secure faq %}
-
-
-
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqdisadvantagetxt1 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqdisadvantagetxt2 }} -
- {{ page.dialogs.faqdisadvantagetxt3 }} -
{% translate securetxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqlegal }}
-
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqlegaltxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqlegaltxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqlegalresource }}
+{% translate islegaltxt1 faq %}
+{% translate islegaltxt2 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqtax }}
+ {% translate taxes faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqtaxtxt }}
+{% translate taxestxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqillegal }}
+ {% translate illegalactivities faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqillegaltxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqillegaltxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqillegaltxt3 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqillegaltxt4 }}
+{% translate illegalactivitiestxt1 faq %}
+{% translate illegalactivitiestxt2 faq %}
+{% translate illegalactivitiestxt3 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqbubble }}
+ {% translate bubble faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqbubbletxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqbubbletxt2 }}
+{% translate bubbletxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqjune }}
+ {% translate whyvalue faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqjunetxt }}
+{% translate whyvaluetxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqprice }}
+ {% translate ponzi faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqpricetxt }}
+{% translate ponzitxt1 faq %}
+{% translate ponzitxt2 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqponzi }}
+ {% translate creator faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqponzitxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqponzitxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqponzitxt3 }}
+{% translate creatortxt1 faq %}
+{% translate creatortxt2 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqsatoshi }}
+ {% translate worthless faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqsatoshitxt }}
+{% translate worthlesstxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqworthless }}
+ {% translate virtual faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqworthlesstxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqworthlesstxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqworthlesstxt3 }}
+{% translate virtualtxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqvirtual }}
+ {% translate trust faq %}
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqvirtualtxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqvirtualtxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqvirtualtxt3 }}
+{% translate trusttxt1 faq %}
- {{ page.dialogs.faqtrust }}
+ {% translate anonymous faq %}
-
-
-{{ page.dialogs.faqtrusttxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqtrusttxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqtrusttxt3 }}
-
- {{ page.dialogs.faqanonymous }}
-
-
{{ page.dialogs.faqanonymoustxt1 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqanonymoustxt2 }}
-{{ page.dialogs.faqanonymoustxt3 }}
+{% translate anonymoustxt1 faq %}
+{% translate anonymoustxt1 faq %}
{{ page.dialogs.faqmore }}
diff --git a/img/faq/merchants_map.png b/img/faq/merchants_map.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ea1117c0 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/faq/merchants_map.png differ diff --git a/img/faq/mobile_receive.png b/img/faq/mobile_receive.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f1298c48 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/faq/mobile_receive.png differ diff --git a/img/faq/mobile_send.png b/img/faq/mobile_send.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..11f71748 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/faq/mobile_send.png differ diff --git a/img/faq/price_chart.png b/img/faq/price_chart.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0d1cc003 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/faq/price_chart.png differ diff --git a/img/press/faq/send_bitcoin_demo.jpg b/img/press/faq/send_bitcoin_demo.jpg deleted file mode 100644 index ca0c7d57..00000000 Binary files a/img/press/faq/send_bitcoin_demo.jpg and /dev/null differ