Hello everybody and welcome back for another article. This time around we will be jumping into some of the biggest tech stories going on right now. There are two that I am going to focus on today, so let’s get right into it.
Bitcoin Prices Highest Ever
So our first topic for today is going to be the situation surrounding Bitcoin. If you don’t know what Bitcoin is, then I shall explain briefly. It is, in short, what is called cryptocurrency, or digital currency. This type of currency is unregulated by banks or governments, although some countries have put bans on this form of payment. Bitcoin specifically is the most valuable form of cryptocurrency out there at the time of writing. Bitcoin, along with its other cryptocurrency counterparts, are not considered legal tender and should be thought of more as arcade tokens. If you want to know more of the specifics behind bitcoin, including history and more about how it works, then follow the link here. With that out of the way, why am I talking about it today? I shall explain that now.
The rise of Bitcoin is an interesting subject to look at. For example, in 2013, the value of one coin stood at just over $1,000. However, just four years later, in late 2017, it had managed to sky-rocket to the point where people were paying $20,000 for a single coin. That was not going to last long, however, as in the early months of 2018 there was a massive decline in the value. It saw an approximate 65% drop. This left the value of one coin at about $7,000. Well now, almost 3 years later, Bitcoin is back at the top, seeing massive increases at the end of 2020 and at the start of 2021. It’s highest value broke the $40,000 mark, and still stands at $37,230 at the time of writing. The most amazing part, and the thing that is giving it so much attention at the moment, is that just over a month ago, its value sat at just $20,000 per coin, meaning that its value doubled in just a month’s time. There are reasons for its massive growth, and reasons why some experts don’t think a repeat of 2017/2018 will happen. However, for the sake of time, I will just give you a brief idea of it. If you want a more detailed explanation, you can take a look here. Essentially, it is believed that the value will continue to hold strong because of the fact that it is getting some mainstream recognition, such as payPal adding support for the use and holding of bitcoin. Other public companies have been purchasing their own shares of the cryptocurrency, that being another factor in its growth. Another reason that it is unlikely for the value to crash again is because this time, Bitcoin owners know not to sell out. They continue to hold onto their shares, causing the value to stay steady. However, the last point I will make about the current standing of Bitcoin is that just recently, it was announced that 150 billion dollars worth of Bitcoin was lost in the matter of a day. If you want to read more about that situation, you can click here. Overall, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general is still a very unstable form of currency, and we will just have to watch out for the progress it makes in months and years to come.
Internet Change
As for the other topic I wanted to talk about, we could be seeing a total change in how the internet functions as a whole. This is thanks to the creator of the web itself, Tim Berners-Lee. Since 2015, he and his start-up project, Inrupt, have been working on a way to change the world of the web that would shake it to its core. To be more specific, they are working on a way to essentially put the privacy and data of a user back into their hands, rather than it being in the hands of app developers and search engines. For example, you would be able to control whether your search data gets shared with google, which if you don’t allow it to go to them, that means they would not be able to push ads at you constantly. Well, they wouldn’t be ads that they would know could catch your attention at any rate. Beyond that, it would allow you to feel completely safe when browsing the internet. You wouldn’t have to worry about data getting stolen or having things like your location found by hackers. It would be all down to what the user allows. The way Lee and his company are trying to do this is through a program called Solid. While the project is not completed yet, they continue to push forward in hopes that they will be able to fulfill the vision Lee originally had for the web. This is something to look out for.
Hopefully you enjoyed a little in depth look at some of today’s biggest tech news. We will have another story for you on Tuesday morning, but until then, have a good weekend everyone.
