Bitcoin debate to take place at Camosun College

Most postsecondary students have at least heard of bitcoin currency. Though a popular topic in the media for the last year, what bitcoin actually is has remained an unclear concept for many people. To help inform Camosun students who wish to learn more, a debate has been set up for mid-September between two of the college’s instructors, Bijan Ahmadi and Francis Michaud, to discuss bitcoin’s legitimacy as a currency.
About five years ago, a computer scientist and researcher wrote about a concept called crypto currency. The idea was that an electronic medium of exchange could be established based off of a set of encrypted codes. Basically, to ‘mine’ a bitcoin you set your computer, using a program called sha1sums, to try to solve one of 21,000,000 existing mathematical equations. If the program is able to solve one, then you get a bitcoin.

This post was published at Nexus News Paper on September 3, 2014.