Top 10 Bitcoin Myths You Should Not Believe – Bitcoin (BTC) is one of the most sought after assets amongst investors. But, despite its surging popularity, news covering BTC often quote gossip and hearsay. And due to their massive reach, people consider them as official information. It is essential to glean facts from the fluff. BTC’s design heavily borrows from mathematics and cryptography. The protocol functions with code and calculations. Therefore, every discussion surrounding bitcoin should be logical and rational. And that can only happen by shunning ‘myths’ and ‘rumors’.
Today, Bitcoin myths are far less than in the early days of the market. However, there are still many misconceptions about the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. As such, anyone unfamiliar with the technical aspects of Bitcoin may find that it’s difficult to determine its real capabilities, features, and use cases. Here are the
top 10 Bitcoin myths you should not believe, in no particular order.
List of Top 10 Bitcoin Myths You Should Not Believe
1) You Need to Buy an Entire Coin
One of the biggest myths about Bitcoin that new users often believe is that you need to buy an entire coin. This myth often leads to new users opting to purchase altcoins instead because they can hold more tokens versus Satoshis. This belief has led many new traders to losses as they venture into new, risky projects in search of major windfalls.
The truth is that Bitcoin can be held in smaller increments, known as Satoshis. Notably, Bitcoin is denominated in 8 decimals but can be broken down further to 16 decimal points if needed. The main thing to understand is that you don’t need to purchase an entire coin to see the benefits. The best strategy is to slowly build up your crypto reserves over time.
Dollar-cost averaging is a method that makes this process easier. DCA refers to purchasing smaller amounts of an asset, like Bitcoin, over time. Spreading out your purchases helps to balance your overall payment price and creates greater savings in the long term.
2) Hackers Can Alter Bitcoin’s Blockchain
Another major misconception about Bitcoin is that people can hack and alter the network. Bitcoin is a massive PoW (Proof-of-Work) network that relies on +300K network nodes to remain valid. The structure of the network means that you would need to hack 50% of the nodes in operation to alter the blockchain.
Computer technology doesn’t exist yet to be able to accomplish this type of hack on such a massive scale. In the future, quantum computers will leave some people worrying about what might occur. However, there is plenty of time for all cryptos to address any issues related to these supercomputers long before they emerge.
3) Bitcoin is Only for Speculation
Another myth that should be dispelled is that Bitocin is only for speculation. In its early days, people who entered the crypto market were a mix of developers, users, and speculators. However, over time, Bitcoin has become a solid store-of-value. The asset has repeatedly outperformed the competition in this regard.
Today, Bitcoin serves multiple roles. It’s used to store value, improve commerce, and expand freedom in the market in addition to speculative transactions. Additionally, you can use Bitcoin to pay for many items today as the market is more mature and supported by a vibrant community.
4) Bitcoin Wastes Energy
There are lots of reports that put Bitcoin energy use on blast. The world’s largest cryptocurrency leverages a PoW consensus mechanism that requires users to compete to solve complex computational equations. These equations use a lot of energy to complete.
In the early days of Bitcoin, these requirements meant that the network used more energy than most nations to remain valid. However, these demands have led most miners to opt for renewable energy options. Even governments like El Salvador have been creative in their efforts. El Salvador, in particular, continues to build a volcanic-powered mining facility. Today, the majority of major mining operations rely on green energy and are increasingly helping to mitigate harmful practices like methane flaring.
5) Bitcoin is Too Volatile to be a SoV
Market volatility is another major myth that has made many people hesitant about joining the market. No one can say that cryptocurrencies aren’t volatile. However, if you look at the long-term market movements of Bitcoin, it becomes obvious that it continues to gain useability over time.
Bitcoin may fluctuate in price, but it continually grows in adoption, use case scenarios and features. This growth is directly related to less volatility in the market as the token continues to gain value. The main thing to review is the long-term movements of the asset, which shows growth unmatched by other asset classes in the last 15 years.
6) Bitcoin is Too Confusing for New Users
Bitcoin seemed alien to new users in the past for multiple reasons. However, today, the market caters to new users. The early days were more confusing because developers focused on creating stable platforms. Today, stability is already addressed, so their focus can go towards creating intuitive interfaces and improving the user experience.
These changes have led to a more friendly Bitcoin experience, which encourages and employs non-technical users to join the network. Today, anyone can easily buy, sell, trade, and even leverage Bitcoin’s blockchain to create new assets. All of these features used to be much more complicated but have since been simplified, meaning that using Bitcoin is now as easy as fiat.
7) The Government can Confiscate Your Bitcoin
Another myth that should be addressed is the risk of Bitcoin confiscations. The technical nature of Bitcoin means that someone would need to hold the private keys of your non-custodial wallet to access your assets. This requirement means that as long as you don’t share your private keys, your encryption is safe.
In the past, governments have been known to confiscate their citizens’ assets when needed to assist in their actions. Even the US confiscated its citizens’ gold as a way to reduce the pressure of the great depression only 100 years prior. Notably, Crypto holders have the added advantage that they are the only ones who can access their Satoshis.
You can improve your protections by following some simple security precautions, such as using hardware wallets and remaining discreet about your holdings. The main thing to remember is that Bitcoin’s technical structure makes it impossible to ban or confiscate effectively without your cooperation. As such, your main concern should be keeping unwanted eyes off your crypto holdings.
8) Bitcoin isn’t Programmable
Another myth about Bitcoin is that it’s not programmable. This myth was true to an extent until recent developments, such as the Taproot upgrade, resulted in added capabilities for Bitcoin users. Today, Bitcoin can support smart contracts and even the creation of Bitcoin-powered assets.
Notably, Bitcoin isn’t the most efficient smart contract option, but it does have the added value of being the top project in the industry. As such, there is a strong demand to leverage its notoriety to improve value. This demand can be seen in the rise of Bitcoin ordinal NFTs. Ordinals are Satoshis inscribed with unique notes.
Of course, adding more data to Bitcoin’s blockchain has long been a concern. In the past, congestion issues have left the network unusable for extended periods due to massive delays and high fees. It’s here where off-chain or ‘second-layer’ protocols like the Lightning Network shine.
9) Every Crypto is Based on Bitcoin
Another myth that is easy to dispel is that every crypto is based on Bitcoin. In the early days of the market, this was true as the majority of projects were simply hard forks of the coin. However, today’s networks vary in their technical structure and capabilities.
There are purpose-built blockchains that share very few technical aspects with Bitcoin operating today. For example, PoS (Proof-of-Stake) blockchains eliminate the need for miners from the validation process. These networks replace mining with staking options.
Staking refers to locking your crypto in a network smart contract. This structure reduces energy consumption considerably as there are no hard computations required. Additionally, it enables all members of the community to do their part to help secure the blockchain, albeit at the potential expense of centralization. Today, there’s a wide selection of consensus mechanisms and blockchain structures that have very little in common with Bitcoin itself.
As time progresses, this trend will continue as new and more efficient methods of securing blockchains surface. Of course, this scenario isn’t a problem as it simply demonstrates the growing innovation in the market. Additionally, each innovation brings new benefits and data to the table. This info can then be leveraged to improve Bitcoin’s network further.
10) You Can’t Mine BTC without Special Equipment
The final myth is that you need special hardware to mine Bitcoin. This final item could be seen as a half-myth. Technically, anyone can mine Bitcoin using a normal PC. However, since the market difficulty is high, the chances of successfully securing a reward on your own are limited.
However, you can improve your rewards by joining a mining pool. These platforms enable you to earn rewards based on the amount of computational power you use compared to the rest of the pool. This approach helps to reduce downtime and hardware requirements for minors. Again, your odds aren’t great, but they are still in the running, and it’s always exciting whenever you see a single low-power node receive the reward.
Wrapping Up!
The Bitcoin rumor mill seems to be slowing as more people become technically aware of the structure it uses to remain secure. You should do your part by confronting and dispelling any Bitcoin myths when you encounter them. In this way, you can help to raise the general knowledge surrounding digital assets like Bitcoin forever.
FAQs on Top 10 Bitcoin Myths You Should Not Believe
Q1. How Does Bitcoin Technology Work?
A: The blockchain is the foundation of Bitcoin. It is a decentralized, distributed ledger that tracks the provenance of digital assets. The data on a blockchain can’t be changed by design, making it a real disruptor in industries like payments, cybersecurity, and healthcare.
Q2. How Many Bitcoins Will Ever Be Created?
A: The source code of Bitcoin stipulates that it must have a restricted and finite quantity. As a result, only 21 million Bitcoins will ever be generated. These Bitcoins are added to the Bitcoin supply at a predetermined rate of one block every ten minutes on average. The supply of Bitcoins will be depleted once miners have unlocked this number of Bitcoins. It’s possible, however, that the protocol for Bitcoin will be altered to allow for a higher supply.
Q3. How Does Bitcoin Work?
A: The blockchain, a distributed digital ledger, is what Bitcoin is based on. As the name suggests, blockchain is a linked database made up of blocks that store information about each transaction, such as the date and time, total amount, buyer and seller, and a unique identifier for each exchange. Entries are linked in chronological order to form a digital blockchain. Entries are linked in chronological order to form a digital blockchain. Blockchain is decentralized, which means any central authority does not control it.
