All time high bitcoin values

And its value floats against other currencies the same way the dollar and the euro float against each other. And over the last six years, it's gone up quite a lot. It was worth less than a dollar in There's a number of companies now that will accept bitcoin as payment. And you can also pretty easily cash in bitcoins for dollars and buy things that way. But yeah, it's a pretty widely used currency on the Internet.

One of the things you can buy with bitcoins is illicit products, like drugs, for example. And it has proven to be a particularly attractive application for bitcoin because if you tried to set up a black market for drugs and accept credit card payments, the credit card networks would shut you down right away. But there's nobody who runs the bitcoin network, and so there's nobody the authorities can go to and say, shut down this network or reverse that payment.

I gather bitcoin's created through mining but not, like, chisel and cloud of dust mining. So mining is the term that bitcoin people use for the process that computers use to kind of run the bitcoin network. There's a global shared record of who has made which payments to whom. And the computers that participate in this process get a reward of new bitcoins. Right now, every block, which happens about 10 minutes, you get a reward of And they call it mining because you're creating new bitcoins in the process of running the network.

One recent estimate said that the bitcoin network as a whole consumes about as much energy as the nation of Denmark. I think, in the very early days, it was computer nerds - I mean, you know, technologists - people who were really interested in the technology. And now it's, I think, more just ordinary people who hear about bitcoin, obviously do some reading - have some understanding of how the technology works but, I think, see more of either profit opportunity or just like the idea of it.

I think there's a significant political strain behind the appeal of bitcoin - people who don't like the Federal Reserve, don't like big banks, don't like conventional financial institutions. I think it's going to continue to be volatile. I think it will probably go up more, but I don't know how much more.

And then I think it will probably crash. But I don't know how much - you know, how far down it will decline. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player.

Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email. December 9, 7: So mining is the term that bitcoin people use for the process that computers use to kind of run the bitcoin network. There's a global shared record of who has made which payments to whom. And the computers that participate in this process get a reward of new bitcoins.

Right now, every block, which happens about 10 minutes, you get a reward of And they call it mining because you're creating new bitcoins in the process of running the network. One recent estimate said that the bitcoin network as a whole consumes about as much energy as the nation of Denmark. I think, in the very early days, it was computer nerds - I mean, you know, technologists - people who were really interested in the technology.

And now it's, I think, more just ordinary people who hear about bitcoin, obviously do some reading - have some understanding of how the technology works but, I think, see more of either profit opportunity or just like the idea of it. I think there's a significant political strain behind the appeal of bitcoin - people who don't like the Federal Reserve, don't like big banks, don't like conventional financial institutions.

I think it's going to continue to be volatile. I think it will probably go up more, but I don't know how much more. And then I think it will probably crash. But I don't know how much - you know, how far down it will decline.

Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player. Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email. December 9, 7: Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday. Thanks for inviting me. So merely you and me uttering - talking about bitcoin could affect its value?

Could you buy a pack of gum, a car, a shoe factory with bitcoin? Is there a black market? And that takes a lot of energy, I gather. Who seems to be betting on bitcoin? Don't like taxes - exactly - kind of libertarian-minded people. Well, what do you think it's going to do? Timothy Lee, senior reporter at Ars Technica, thanks so much for being with us.