What are Bitcoins?
Bitcoins are digital crypto currency and P2P payment consensus network on itself.
Bitcoins is a buzz in Nepali press these days however Bitcoins existed since 2009 even in Nepal. Here are facts and knowledge-based QnA on Bitcoins in Nepal legality, availability and possibility. Consider this open-sourced like Bitcoins themselves.
When did Bitcoins started in Nepal?
Since things are difficult to predict when they exist globally via Internet, Bitcoins first started on January of 2009, accordingly it should have started in the country. We started mining bitcoins on 2011.
How to make Bitcoins?
Bitcoin Basics
- Bitcoin is a virtual currency
- Sans a physical form, it can still be used to buy almost anything
- It is decentralized and it doesn’t have any type of control
- They are stored in a virtual ‘wallet’
- Transactions are fast, secure and anonymous
- Bitcoin is created by ‘mining’, that is computer power processing transactions
- Only 21 million coins will be ever created
- Bitcoin price is determined by supply and demand
- Bitcoin is totally open source, anyone can have access to the code
Well, they call it mining. Bitcoins can be mined originally with requirement of having a huge and always on-computing resource, a faster internetworking connectivity and the ability to wait till some bitcoins are generated. Mining requires computing transactions over secure network and keep everyone in the bitcoin system synchronized. So, you can just imagine how much is the resource required. Details on specific Bitcoin FAQs can be found at bitcoin community website from The Bitcoin Foundation here.
BiTMinter is a quick and easy bitcoin mining pool to mint bitcoins and make money with your computer, solely using browser.
Can I make money with Bitcoins?
Bitcoins are currency that carry monetary value. You should, however, never expect to get rich with Bitcoins or any emerging technologies as such. The value of one BTC have been fluctuating from a thousand dollars to 500 in a couple of months unpredictably. However, it is a better idea to make some Bitcoins – even for fun. You can get start with some Bitcoins from services we list here.
Bitcoin – Nepalese Rupee (BTC-NPR) Exchange Rates
Bitcoin to Nepalese Rupee Chart: XBT-NPR Exchange history for the last one month, source: XE.com
Bitcoin’s basic unit is 10ˉ⁸ called Satoshi, the values of 1BTC or BTX fluctuates every minute. As of writing this article, the current coin value of 1 XBT or 1 BTC = $4133.05 = NPR 423720.29. (Satoshi is the basic unit of Bitcoin, 1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC, alternatively 1 NPR = 0.0000024 BTC)
Can you name popular Bitcoin miners from Nepal?
Well, Bitcoins are anonymous and their miners too. However, one can track bitcoin wallet transactions like total balance, total sent and total received transactions bitcoins.One can track who use or mine Bitcoins on the social media discussions, hashtag analysis and thru direct relation. Some of the facts on this are present here.
Localbitcoins.com shows local Bitcoin traders in Kathmandu.
Bitcoin Traders or Bitcoin Entertainers in Nepal (which have been shutdown)
Harilo: The popular e-commerce site from Nepal, lets you pay the items you order using Bitcoins or even purchase Bitcoins not only the bitcoin miners (as stated in their FAQs and Blog.) Harilo is one important place to spend your hard mined bitcoins in Nepal and to buy bitcoins if you’re really onto it!
Bitcoin Nepal Private Limited: Registered Bitcoin service provder in Nepal. Registered by Nir Limbu (nir kedem), Bitcoin Nepal Private Limited operates bitcoin.com.np . The website enlist the latest bitcoin trade exchange rates along with other popular digital currencies like Litecoin, Novacoin, Namecoin, Peercoin and Feathercoin. However, Bitcoin Nepal pvt ltd doesn’t do direct exchange of BTC into NPR and vice versa.
Nepali Restaurants accepting Bitcoins: Not really easy finding that but anyone can lookup for such information. Few restaurants in Thamel and New Baneshwor are said to accept bitcoins for the bills. We have had this experience as well. However, none of these Nepali restaurants state of accepting Bitcoins in their menus or websites so we couldn’t list here.
Increasing Bitcoin transactions; Nepal Rastra Bank to take action if any Nepali businesses involved in Bitcoin transactions.
Hulas Remittance: When asked Hulas Remittance whether they exchange Bitcoins, they said “bidesh bata aayeko paisa matra exchange garinchha”. So, we have no official confirmation despite many websites in Nepal claim that they have exchanged Bitcoins via Hulas. What we found in reality is that Hulas remit’s website have a Bitcoin to Nepalese Rupee converter widget which shows upon in Google searches (is that all, are there something in them?)
After all, are Bitcoins legal in Nepal?
The official website of the country’s central bank Nepal Rastra Bank had not stated any official statements regarding legalities of Bitcoins in Nepal till this year. However, newspapers have been quoting the bank that they have not permitted anybody to use Bitcoins in Nepal for any legal business and monetary transactions since beginning.
Regulating virtual digital currencies is not an easy task – for which many countries haven’t intervened, on the other hand how do we expect our central bank to peep onto our personal wallets? Let’s discuss this on the comment section.
“Bitcoin is illegal in Nepal.” – Deputy Director, Kedar Prasad Acharya, Nepal Rastra Bank.
In an event organized by Thames International College, Nepal Business Gabfest, 2017.
A question was raised regarding bitcoin legalities and regulation in Nepal. Then we received the following statement by Kedar Prasad Acharya (Deputy Director of Nepal Rastra Bank).
“Bitcoin is illegal in Nepal.”
– Kedar Prasad Acharya, Deputy Director of Nepal Rastra Bank.
The Bitcoin or Blockchain companies are promptly suspending Bitcoin trading in their platform and customer are not be able to buy/sell bitcoins thereafter.
Why was Bitcoin banned in Nepal?
Central Bank of Nepal is not able to track the transaction and is a high risk for going outward remittance for buying bitcoins than inward remittance.
Public Opinion: A lot has changed in terms of perception and in terms of where digital currencies are. Digital currencies are here and have set a solid foothold in the world economy. Its acceptance has accelerated, governments around the world are realizing its importance and its value. One thing is for sure, digital currencies will do more good to the people of the country than harm. Hope that the government will soon realize its endless possibilities and formulate regulations that support innovation and growth. (source : rabinxp)
INCREASE YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
List of free Bitcoin sites to start with
There are many websites that provide free Bitcoins either to start you on the digital currency arena or play around with. Many websites give you free bitcoins, litecoins or feathercoins (popular digital currencies) upon sign up, others give coins for visiting their websites but are just good to start with Bitcoins, enthusiast should rather consider mining. Whatever their purpose be, ensure you are not at spammer’s hand.
- BitVisitor pays users for visiting sponsored sites listed on their website.
- qoinpro gives free bitcoins, litecoins, feathercoins and other digital coins everyday automatically, just sign up and confirm for the magical automation.
- FreeBitco.in – our favorite one- is Roll and Win site to try luck every hour, bitcoins can be won in range of 0.00000261 to 0.261 BTC.
- FaucetBTC – free bitcoins every 30 minutes, payment sent to CoinBox.me.
- CoinAd – free bitcoins from a PTC (Paid-to-Click) website.
- DailyFreeBitcoin – faucet that provides 300 Satoshis every hour.
- vnbitcoin – website that gives free bitcoin for first timer Bitcoin user to get started with 0.00003 BTC to every visitor.
We list here different kinds of crypto currencies or digital coins available in the market or the web:
List of Digital Crypto-Currencies
Enlisted here are available, popular and frequently transacted digital or virtual crypto-currencies. To suggest more currencies, please write in the comment box below. .
Release | Status | Currency | Symbol | Founder | Hash algorithm | Timestamping (POS, POW, or other) |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Active | Auroracoin | AUR | Baldur Odinsson (pseudonym)[2] |
Scrypt | POW | Created as an alternative to fiat currency in Iceland. |
2009 | Active | Bitcoin | BTC,[3][4]XBT | Satoshi Nakamoto[nt 1] | SHA-256d[5][6] | POW[6][7] | The first decentralized ledger currency. Cryptocurrency with the most famous, popular, notable and highest market capitalization. |
2017 | Active | Bitcoin Cash | BCH | SHA-256d | POW | Hard fork from Bitcoin | |
2017 | Active | BitConnect | BCC | Scrypt[8] | PoW & PoS[9] | The community driven decentralized cryptocurrency that allow people to store and invest their wealth in a non-government controlled currency, and even earn a substantial interest. | |
2014 | Active | BlackCoin | BC | Rat4 (pseudonym) | Scrypt | POS | Secures its network through a process called minting. |
2014 | Active | Burstcoin | BURST | Burstcoin Community | SHA-256d | Proof of Capacity | First Proof of Capacity coin, First Smart Contract, First Atomic Cross Chain Transfer. |
2014 | Inactive | Coinye | KOI, COYE | Scrypt | POW | Used American hip hop artist Kanye West as its mascot, abandoned after trademark lawsuit. | |
2014[10] | Active | Dash | DASH | Evan Duffield & Kyle Hagan[11] |
X11 | POW & Proof of Service[nt 2] | A bitcoin-based currency featuring instant transactions, decentralized governance and budgeting, and private transactions. |
2014 | Active | DigitalNote | XDN | XDN-dev team, dNote[14] | CryptoNight[15] | POW | A private cryptocurrency with an instant untraceable crypto messages and first blockchain banking implementation, use CryptoNote protocol. |
2013 | Active | Dogecoin | DOGE, XDG | Jackson Palmer & Billy Markus[12] |
Scrypt[13] | POW | Based on an internet meme. |
2013[16] | Active | Emercoin | EMC | EvgenijM86 & Yitshak Dorfman | SHA-256 | POW & POS | Trusted storage for any small data: acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS, PKI store, SSL infrastructure and other. |
2015 | Active | Ethereum | ETH | Vitalik Buterin[17] | Ethash[18] | POW | Supports Turing-complete smart contracts. |
2015 | Active | Ethereum Classic | ETC | Ethash[18] | POW | An alternative version of Ethereum[19] whose blockchain does not include the DAO Hard-fork.[20][21] Supports Turing-complete smart contracts. | |
2013[22][23] | Active | Gridcoin | GRC | Rob Hälford [24] | Scrypt | Decentralized POS | The first cryptocurrency linked to citizen science through the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing[25][26] |
2015 | Active | IOTA | IOT, MIOTA[27] | … | Curl | … | The first cryptocurrency using the Tangle, a next generation blockchain, as distributed ledger technology. |
2011 | Active | Litecoin | LTC | Charles Lee | Scrypt | POW | The first cryptocurrency to use Scrypt as a hashing algorithm. |
2014 | Active | MazaCoin | MZC | BTC Oyate Initiative | SHA-256d | POW | The underlying software is derived from that of another cryptocurrency, ZetaCoin. |
2014 | Active | Monero | XMR | Monero Core Team[28] | CryptoNight[15] | POW | Privacy-centric coin using the CryptoNote protocol with improvements for scalability and decentralization. |
2011 | Active | Namecoin | NMC | Vincent Durham[29][30] | SHA-256d | POW | Also acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS. |
2014 | Active | NEM | XEM | UtopianFuture (pseudonym) | SHA3-512 | POI | The first hybrid public/private blockchain solution built from scratch, and first to use the Proof of Importance algorithm using EigenTrust++ reputation system. |
2014 | Active | Nxt | NXT | BCNext (pseudonym) |
SHA-256d[31] | POS | Specifically designed as a flexible platform to build applications and financial services around its protocol. |
2013 | Active | Omni | MSC | J. R. Willett [32] | SHA-256d[33] | N/A | Omni is both digital currency and communications protocol built on top of the existing bitcoin block chain. |
2012[6] | Active | Peercoin | PPC | Sunny King (pseudonym)[34] |
SHA-256d[35] | POW & POS | The first cryptocurrency to use POW and POS functions. |
2014 | Active | PotCoin | POT | Scrypt | POW | Developed to service the legalized cannabis industry | |
2013 | Active | Primecoin | XPM | Sunny King (pseudonym)[34] |
1CC/2CC/TWN[36] | POW[36] | Uses the finding of prime chains composed of Cunningham chains and bi-twin chains for proof-of-work, which can lead to useful byproducts. |
2013 | Active | Ripple[37][38][39] | XRP[39] | Chris Larsen & Jed McCaleb[40] |
ECDSA[41] | “Consensus” | Designed for peer to peer debt transfer. Not based on bitcoin. |
2015 | Active | SixEleven | SIL | fflo (pseudonym)[42] | SHA-256d | POW | Also acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS. |
2011 | Active | SwiftCoin | STC | Daniel Bruno, Chartered Market Technician [43] |
SHA-256 | POW | First digital coin with theoretical value based on the work required to produce electricity. First block chain to support currency creation by interest paid on debt. Solidus Bond proto smart-contract. One of the first digital coins patented in the US. First block chain to support encrypted mail with attachments. |
2014 | Active | Synereo AMP | AMP | Dor Konforty & Greg Meredith[44] | POS | POS | Trying to create a world computer, Synereo’s 2.0 tech stack incorporates all faculties needed to support decentralized computation without central servers.[45] |
2014 | Active | Titcoin | TIT | Edward Mansfield & Richard Allen[46] | SHA-256d | POW | The first cryptocurrency to be nominated for a major adult industry award.[47] |
2017 | Active | Ubiq | UBQ | Julian Yap[48] | Ethash[18] | POW | Supports Turing-complete smart contracts; air-gapped fork of Ethereum |
2014 | Active | Vertcoin | VTC | Bushido | Lyra2rev2 | POW | Next-gen ASIC resistance and first to implement stealth adresses. |
2016 | Active | Zcash | ZEC | Zooko Wilcox | Equihash | POW | The first open, permissionless financial system employing zero-knowledge security. |
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN TECHSANSAR