Practical Aspects of the Bitcoin System
It provides an overview of Bitcoin for those interested in digital payment systems, but it is incremental as it primarily describes existing aspects without new research.
The article describes Bitcoin's technological basis and ecosystem, including users, miners, and trading platforms, and discusses its currency-like features and initial regulatory actions in the EU and USA.
Digital payment schemes show an ever increasing importance. Out of the countless different schemes available this article focuses on the popular Bitcoin system. The authors provide a description of Bitcoin's unique technological basis and its accompanying ecosystem of users, miners, trading platforms and vendors. Furthermore, this article discusses Bitcoin's currency-like features and the first regulatory actions take in the European Union and in the United States of America.