«Bitcoin is governed by a set of rules that no single person can bend»

0
1972
Ofir Beigel
Entrevista Ofir Beigel – CEO de 99Bitcoins y autor del libro “My Dirty Little Bitcoin secret”

Interview Ofir Beigel – CEO 99Bitcoins and author of the book “My Dirty Little Bitcoin secret”

 

By Óscar Domínguez

 

Who is Ofir Beigel?

I’m 34 years old an I live in Israel. I come from an Internet Marketing background and started to deal with Bitcoin as a business opportunity back in 2013. I am married and have 2 amazing dogs 🙂

Today I run 99 Bitcoins full time and am working on publishing my new book called “My Dirty Little Bitcoin secret”. The book describes how I managed to build a Bitcoin business from home and give practical tips and techniques to any who want to copy my method.

 

What is 99 Bitcoins and like the idea emerges to you? 

In April 2013 I was unemployed and looking for my next big venture. I read about Bitcoin on Techcrunch and decided it’s something worth looking in to. I started a very small blog that only described various ways of how to buy Bitcoins since it was a very hard process at the time.

As the Bitcoin economy grew so did my blog. I decided that there is a gap of knowledge in the Bitcoin space – the term is too complicated for “normal” people to understand. I then set 99 Bitcoins to be the go-to place for people who want to get started with Bitcoin.

I filled the blog up with easy to understand guides, tutorials and reviews and today I think the blog speaks for itself.

 

Could explain to our followers in Spain What is Bitcoin, from a personal perspective? 

Bitcoin is how money would look like if it was invented today. It’s just a way of exchanging value between one another like any other currency. If I for example do some work for you, you need to give me something in return.

Normally you would give me a 20 euro bill which I would need to keep in order to prove I gave you some value. But why use paper notes and coins when we can just write down in some sort of a ledger how much money each person owns or owes. That’s exactly what Bitcoin is – one big file which documents who owns what.

Of course we could do the same with the Euro and just keep track inside the banking system, but then the banks have all the power. Bitcoin is decentralized – meaning no one controls it. It is governed by a set of rules that no single person can bend – that’s what makes it so populer. In a time of corruption and abuse of power, when governments seize their citizens’ bank accounts (like what happened in Cyprus), Bitcoin is the ultimate solution.

 

What state is bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin has reached some sort of a stand still since we are now waiting for more merchants to come aboard. The main issue now is that there is no practical use for the currency other than trading. In order to amplify the use, we need more and more shops to allow the use of Bitcoin.

I don’t deal that much with other crypto currencies since I believe they are just trying to copy Bitcoin and don’t add any real value. The amount of public awareness Bitcoin has managed to rise is outstanding, and no other altcoin comes even close to it. That’s why I tend to shy away from them.

 

What do you think about the future of Cryptocurrencies?

 Seeing the rate of adoption Bitcoin has with major companies like Microsoft, IBM and so on I predict a bright future for Bitcoin. But it won’t happen right away, we need some sort of “tipping point” like the one that happened in December 2013 when the price skyrocketed so that more and more merchants will come on board.

 

Ofir Beigel
Ofir Beigel

 

If you liked the interview, you can visit Ofir Beigel’s site 99Bitcoins

Also you can see the interview in Spanish:

“Bitcoin se rige por un conjunto de reglas que ninguna persona puede doblar”

Draw picture: Sergio Petrelli

Advertencia "La inversión en criptoactivos no está regulada, puede no ser adecuada para inversores minoristas y perderse la totalidad del importe invertido"