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Meet the Bitcoin, a virtual currency that today is worth $ 50 and has been the subject of controversy for facilitating purchases of drugs and guns
By John VARELLA
After eating a bread on the plate and have a coffee in a bakery in central São Paulo, the systems analyst Thiago Martins, 33, asked if he could pay the bill with bitcoin rather than real. The clerk did not understand and asked Martins to explain what he was proposing. It was the cue for him to make a speech on digital currency bitcoin. Although not backed by any country or bank, money is increasingly used worldwide. It is used, for example, in transactions within and outside the internet, such as purchases of electronic equipment, bicycles, restaurants, car rentals and even drugs and weapons.
Evangelist: the programmer Thiago Martins is one of the enthusiasts who help disseminate
the new payment method in Brazil.
With four years on the market, its popularity among internet users is growing, including in Brazil, thanks to Martins as evangelizers. "I do not want the real," he says. "With bitcoin feel more safe and free." Whether for the systems analyst is difficult to understand why the bakery and other shops do not accept bitcoin for some economists are plenty of reasons for concern. One of the aspects that make of hair standing with the virtual currency is that, unless backed by the risks of tax evasion, fraud and strengthening of organized crime are higher. Moreover, the fact that currency pirate was invented almost like a science fiction story cause skepticism among analysts.
Priced currently at more than U$ 50, the bitcoin was created by a mysterious hacker named Satoshi Nakamoto - a Japanese name commonplace, equivalent to John Smith. Who is he, what were their motivations and where you're going are some of the questions that remain unanswered. The fact is that the currency was launched in a peculiar moment: in early 2009, just months after the bankruptcy of U.S. bank Lehman Brothers, which triggered the global financial crisis. With people suspicious of the financial system, the acceptance of an alternative to this model was facilitated. The transactions and the issuance of each bitcoin are made through a computer network in a manner analogous to what happens with the networks of Internet file exchanges.
The data sharing technology called P2P (peer-to-peer), which was the site Napster one of the pioneers in the late 1990s, makes the PCs connected to the network to "talk" to each other in a decentralized way. With bitcoin, users make transactions without the intervention of third parties, which lowers the cost. Sending a 1 BTC to another wallet has zero cost. All connected computers help to process and record the passage of the currency of a portfolio to another, as well as help to issue new bitcoins. More or less 25 bitcoins are mined - this is the jargon used in the middle - every ten minutes. Currently, there are about 11 million bitcoins in the market, worth more than $ 600 million in the quotation of the leading exchange houses that work with the international currency, as MtGox, Bitfloor and Bitcoin-Central.
Increasing acceptance Talitha Noguchi (center), owner of the bar and bike shop Las skinny,
expected to generate new business with Bitcoin.
REPLACEMENT OF COINS The emergence of bitcoin reflects the trend of currency substitution by physical electronic circuits, which has been gaining momentum since the 1960s, says Gilson Schwartz, an economist and professor at the School of Communications and Arts at USP. He warns, however, that the fact of being an unbacked currency can lead to problems. "There is the risk of tax evasion, fraud and strengthening of organized crime," he says. What reinforces his thesis is that the bitcoin already have become the official currency of the Silk Road, an obscure website that sells heroin, LSD and marijuana, among other drugs. A stimulus to the use of this channel is bitcoin anonymity - no one knows who are the real owners of the portfolios.
In addition, each user can spread their BTCS several accounts. In defense of the currency, saying it bounce off its enthusiasts can buy drugs with real and dollar, for example, without this having given rise to criticism of these currencies. The bitcoin may still not be a priority on the agenda of governments, but the strongest advertising this coin was made exactly for the White House. When WikiLeaks, the controversial website set up by Australian Julian Assange, released secret communications from U.S. embassies, Washington articulated to credit institutions that did not meet the more page. Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, Paypal and Western Union stopped providing services to WikiLeaks activists, which nearly closed.
The solution was to appeal to the bitcoin, against whom the U.S. government can not do anything. To block it, it would have to shut down every computer connected to the network, a virtually impossible task. "When I saw that WikiLeaks accepting donations of such a bitcoin, when I went back to see what it meant," said Martins, who knew one of the currency thanks to the publicity given by the administration of Barack Obama. He and dozens of users struggle to disseminate the currency in Brazil, where, although it is growing, the use is light years behind Europe and the U.S.. While it is possible to borrow up to U.S. pizza with bitcoins in Brazil a good part of the spin of the coin is through an exchange of rudimentary services and products Bittalk forum, which takes the place of a ranked list.
Choke: to be abandoned by major financial institutions,
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks appealed to pirate coin.
Taking the first step to enter this community, the country is not easy, because there is no established home exchange. The closest sites are interested in joining buy and sell bitcoins. The main one is the Bitcoin Market, managed by technology consultant miner Leandro Cesar, 37 years. He said his company has two thousand Brazilians and adherence to the newness expected to jump this year. "A streak that could propel it is to online games," says Caesar. Despite working with a coin anarchic, Caesar has got into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). The problem arose when he tried to make a group of friends to acquire machinery "mining".
After all, the greater processing power of computers, more bitcoins are gained. The CVM understood this as an investment, which must necessarily sift organ. A communication was sent to Caesar sending him delete the announcement, on pain of receiving a fine. "I did what I was given, although not in accordance with their vision," he says. Spite of the statement, both the CVM and the Central Bank have defined rules as to bitcoin. That may soon change, because that is still in its infancy, the acceptance of money by a growing number of businesses will require a system of regulation at some point. In Vila Madalena in Sao Paulo, for example, bar and Las skinny bike shop already works with bitcoin.
The owner of the site, Talita Noguchi, 27, expects to generate new business with it. "We will attract developers here that would not be our usual customers," says Tracey. She was persuaded to accept bitcoin by friends who work in the area of computer programming. The doctor of economic law and college professor Insper Jairo Saddi, however, says that hardly bitcoin will expand beyond the virtual circles. "Attempts to unbacked currencies occur for centuries, but all fail," said Saddi. He does, however, a caveat that could mean an encouragement for Pirates bitcoin. "Talk about a single currency for all of Europe in the 19th century was absolutely utopian" he says. "Today, the euro is here, with all the advantages and disadvantages of a single currency."
