Initial Studio Session 3/19

The group first tried to determine what topics and articles that we would write on the vast topic that is Bitcoin. Alex, a 4th year Computer Science major on the team, led the group’s discussion as he is currently working on a large Bitcoin related social media project. The first step was trying to get a better understanding of exactly what Bitcoin is and how it works a form of exchange. Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, who had a vision to create “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

The group then split up to do more investigative research on Bitcoin and any related news. The articles that I focused on were about the social media aspect and it’s relation to Bitcoin. Ideas ranged from Bitcoin following the trend of early 2000s social media to how social media impacts the price of Bitcoin as people speculate in real time around the globe. As new digital currencies become more readily available in the near future Bitcoin’s fate will depend on how it matches up against them. Another article highlighted the most popular Bitcoin purchases on Overstock.com. Most purchases were fairly mundane which some say is evidence of the currencies success.