No one needs bitcoins

To begin at a basic level, no one on the planet actually needs bitcoins. Once someone exchanges dollars or another established currency for bitcoins in an online account, there is a growing but still narrow group of Web merchants and physical retailers, including WordPress.com and two Subway stores, that accept it as payment. True, transaction volumes are soaring, though from a very low base. At today’s price, the total value of bitcoin in circulation is $7 billion.

To make a slightly unfair comparison, the amount of physical U.S. currency in circulation is $1.2 trillion.
Bitcoins are “mined,” or created, by programmers who set their computers to compete to solve math problems. The pace of creation of new bitcoins, now about 12 million, is set in advance. The supply of bitcoins will ultimately peak, forever, at 21 million.

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