The Bitcoin Exchange Users who are interested in acquiring bitcoins can do so through a bitcoin exchange. These websites enable customers to trade their traditional currency, like the United States dollar or the euro, for bitcoins. Individuals who use bitcoin exchanges will be made aware of the current exchange rate at the time of their purchase. How Do Bitcoin Exchanges Work? Bitcoin exchange visitors interested in acquiring bitcoins can do so by exchanging their more traditional currency. Similarly, individuals who wish to trade in their bitcoins can do so and receive the cryptocurrency’s current value. The value of bitcoin at the time of the trading is determined by the price indices, which are updated in real time. The actual acquisition of bitcoins on these exchanges often operates in a similar fashion to the stock market. Users who are interested in acquiring bitcoins can post a bid price, the price at which they are willing to purchase bitcoins on the market. Similarly, those selling their bitcoins on these exchanges can do so by posting offer prices. Current Bitcoin Exchanges There are currently over 70 bitcoin exchanges that users can access over the web. Below is a breakdown of five of the most prominent exchanges users can access online. Coinbase . The foremost bitcoin exchange in the world, Coinbase, operating in fourteen countries, offers individuals the opportunity to purchase and sell their bitcoins online. Although the company is currently expanding its services across Europe and now offers individuals from fourteen countries the opportunity to exchange their traditional currency for bitcoins, Coinbase is best known for the services it offers to United States customers. The website’s services have been simplified so Coinbase users can easily exchange their bitcoins or traditional currency safely online. First, users sign up for the website’s services and register their bank account on the website, enabling simple transfers of funds between the account and the website. From there, individuals can begin to purchase and sell their bitcoins on the website. Additionally, Coinbase users can also store their bitcoins on the website and utilize its “wallet” applications for easy usage of the currency outside of the exchange. With the web wallet, bitcoin holders can use their currency to purchase items online at websites like Amazon and Overstock. Similarly, mobile wallet users can use their bitcoins at “brick and mortar” stores. Cryptsy . Based in Florida, this website offers users the opportunity to exchange their traditional currencies, like the United States dollar, for a range of different cryptocurrencies. Not only can users purchase and sell the very-popular bitcoin currency at Cryptsy, but they can also exchange for digital currencies like Dogecoin, LiteCoin, Peercoin, DarkCoin, FeatherCoin, Nxt, and ReddCoin. In total, users can complete exchanges in 198 different BTC markets in addition to 68 LTC markets. Over 150 different currencies are supported by Cryptsy. Bter: This website offers users the opportunity to exchange their United States dollars, Chinese yen, bitcoins, and dogecoins for a variety of other currencies. Bter features safe SSL connections, low trading and withdrawal fees, and attentive customer service representatives. Additionally, users can download wallet applications for both their desktop and their Android phones for the easy usage of currencies outside of the bitcoin exchange. BTC-e . This website, which began trading in 2011, offers users the opportunity to exchange their bitcoins, United States dollars, and euros online. Previously, the website had also included the ability for visitors to exchange their Russian roubles. However, the website has since discontinued this functionality due to the nation’s hard stance against cryptocurrencies. BTC-e users can also make exchanges for Litecoins, Namecoins, and other cryptocurrencies. Kraken: This bitcoin exchange website offers visitors the opportunity to exchange their United States dollars and euros in exchange for Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Namecoin, Litecoin, and Ripple. Kraken, an exchange which is based in Europe, also places a large emphasis on the website’s security and does not charge a large number of fees. Bitstamp: This United Kingdom-based bitcoin exchange is the second largest in the world, with a 30-day trading volume of 352,288.814 BTC and $152,620,330.69 US dollars. Despite being said in the UK, the website only facilitates the exchange of bitcoins for US dollars. However, users can deposit the funds traded for on Bitstamp through the European Union’s Single Euro Payments Area. The exchange recently incorporated stop order and trailing stop order features to help users better control their trading. Mt. Gox: The Exchange That Used To Be #1 While the bitcoin exchanges discussed above has since become the leaders in the field, over 70% of all bitcoins were once exchanged on Mt. Gox. This website, which originally began as the “Magic The Gathering Online eXchange”, offer users a platform to purchase and sell their bitcoins online in 2010, when a Bitcoin advocate determined that bitcoin users needed a central site, like a bank, to exchange their bitcoins safely. Mt. Gox’s downfall came as a result of the website’s inability to provide security to its user base. Over 850,000 bitcoins disappeared from the exchange website. The total value of the lost bitcoins at the time was over $450 million US dollars. Over 200,000 exchanges have since been found, with the reasons for the disappearance of the bitcoins include theft, fraud, and general mismanagement. In February 2014, the website ceased its operations and the story of Mt. Gox’s failure has led to an increased emphasis on security by emerging exchanges like Kraken. $1 bitcoin account %NEW Currency exchange Bitcoin currency exchanges work in a manner similar to banks. One first deposits amounts of money in the currencies supported by the exchange, to his own account in the exchange, uses these balances to trade with other users of the exchange and then withdraws that money. Unlike over-the-counter transactions, there is no risk of losing money due to people not fulfilling their part of the deal, as long as the exchange itself does not commit fraud or withhold money. Exchanging is done by placing „buy“ or „sell“ orders, which the exchange system software then matches with each other. „Buy“ orders (or „bids“) are offers to buy bitcoins in exchange for another currency at a maximum price-per-bitcoin which is set by the offerer. „Sell“ orders (or „asks“) are offers to sell bitcoins at a minimum price-per-bitcoin. If the bid price of a buy order is higher than the ask price of a sell order, an exchange can be performed and either the bid order, the sell order or both can be removed from the „order book“. Thus, at any given time, there is a price above which there are no more buy orders and a slightly higher price below which there are no more sell orders. Communication with the Bitcoin currency exchanges is commonly done using a standard web browser, over a secure SSL connection. The payment methods that are most commonly accepted and used by Bitcoin currency exchanges are: Bitcoin transfers Liberty Reserve Bank wires Credit cards Currencies that can be exchanged with Bitcoins in an automated way include: US Dollars Euros Japanese Yen Russian Rubles Pound Sterling Pecunix Gold „Soft currencies“ and chargebacks Exchanging bitcoins for other forms of currency brings up some issues regarding chargeback fraud. Specifically, payment methods such as credit cards, and PayPal, can be reversed up to 90 days after the transaction took place. In contrast, bitcoin is a „hard currency“, once you spend bitcoins, you cannot get them back by 'pulling' from your side. Thus, when you trade bitcoin for a 'soft' currency like paypal or credit card, you open yourself up to the risk of chargeback after you send bitcoin. The buyer may initiate a chargeback by claiming non-receipt of goods, or if a stolen account was used, the real account owner will initiate the process once he notices a charge he didn't make. As a result, it is strongly recommended to not trade 'soft' currency for 'hard' currency with people you do not know or trust. In January, 2010, an open source currency exchange platform was released by the founder of Bitcoin Central. The two major exchanges at the time, Bitcoin Market and MtGox. were hit with a wave of PayPal scams in October 2010, where one or a group of individuals used stolen PayPal accounts to fund their exchange accounts to buy bitcoins. This has caused the freezing of the Mtgox paypal account, and a suspension of new user registration on Bitcoin Market. These account freezes caused a temporary liquidity problem for the bitcoin economy, as it became more difficult to exchange dollars for bitcoins. Exchange Rates and Market Forces Early in the life of Bitcoin, the currency showed some major fluctuations in exchange value, ranging from under $50 to $266 US. The exchange rate of Bitcoin has shown relatively stable growth since the beginning of 2013. The current exchange rate for bitcoins is at $959.58 US. The all time high for the value of a single bitcoin was on November 17th, 2013 when it reached $1216.73 US on the Mt. Gox exchange. Bitcoin has been criticized by economists for bubbling up around itself, similar to the housing market in the US before the crash and it is true that Bitcoin has shown a tendency for rapid rises and crashes in price. However, given the instability of the global economy, Bitcoin has proven to be a reliable investment compared to many other popular currencies. In particular the European debt crisis gave rise to a large amount of currency being converted to bitcoin to keep it safe from the falling value of the Euro. These investments in turn drove up the value of the bitcoin thanks to its unique production method. Despite the growing popularity of bitcoin transactions and the generally rising price, several events have shown an inability to withstand major blows to its reputation. The FBI seizure of around 26,000 bitcoins from the drug distribution website Silk Road more than halved the value of individual bitcoins. Technical errors have also proven to be a difficulty for speculators on the exchange value of the BTC. In April of 2013, a backlog of transactions shut down the Mt. Gox website, causing a drop in value from $266 to $77 US. While it has become easier to buy and sell bitcoins with the influx of bitcoin exchanges [1] across the world over the past couple of years, the availability of access to the currency has been one of the greatest sources of variability in its exchange rate. Because of looming government regulations, most notably the U.S. it has been a challenge to convert your local currency into Bitcoin, which has led to highly variable prices based on geography, which, for a currency which is designed to be borderless, has proven to be an issue, given that so many bitcoin users treat their bitcoins more like an asset than a currency. That is to say, they intend to hold onto their BTC until they decide to convert back into their local currency, rather than spend it online for anonymous transactions. where to exchange currency in jacksonville nc