I’ve been reading about Bitcoin for a couple of years now, and I must admit I still don’t fully understand how it works. Terms like blockchain and mining confuse me, as does the mystery surrounding who created Bitcoin. (Here’s a useful site describing Bitcoin.)
But I thought perhaps the best way to find out what it is and how it works was to just dive in and buy some Bitcoin and go from there.
There seemed to be several options for purchasing Bitcoin, but I thought I would go with the recommendation of Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist I have mentioned in this blog before.
Fred has written several posts about Bitcoin, and in a recent one he mentions Coinbase as a site where you can buy, sell, and use Bitcoin. Coinbase is one of the startups Fred’s company, Union Square Ventures, has invested in, and I trust Fred enough that he has done his due diligence on Coinbase before his firm invested in it.
Fred also talks about having a Bitcoin denominated wallet, a USD denominated wallet, and the vault where he keeps most of his bitcoin. (Apparently there is some confusion as to whether Bitcoin should be capitalized and if “Bitcoin” is both singular and plural in usage.)
So I set up my account (it’s free), connected my Coinbase wallet with my bank account, and once I verified the connection, Coinbase gave me .004207 Bitcoin!
If you are interested in creating a Bitcoin account, and getting .004207 bitcoin just for signing up, here is a link:
https://www.coinbase.com/join/jborden_l4DZog
In the interests of full disclosure and transparency, if anyone does create an account using the link above, I get another .004207 of Bitcoin!
I’m hoping that even if just 1% of my ever growing Twitter following signs up for a Coinbase account through my link, I’ll be able to retire years ahead of schedule.
By the way, .004207 is currently equal to $1.00…
Borden's Blather 