My first experience with Bitcoin No.1

Then let’s write.

今さらながら、うわさの仮想通貨「ビットコイン（bitcoin）」をはじめてみました。

1. motivation for starting: might be useful for future travel?

My motivation for starting was not that I wanted to use it speculatively, but that I thought I should have it as a means of payment while traveling.

I thought Bitcoin was really safe after the collapse of Mt Gox in early 2014, but as I learned more about it, I understood that this was not the essence of it. I learned that it has been developing well since then.

In fact, it seems that the environment for using Bitcoin is gradually being established around the world. The other day, while surfing the web, I happened to find news in The Economist that UATP had begun considering handling bitcoin, and as a travel enthusiast, I thought it was an asset I should own.

I’m pretty sure I heard that Expedia, which I checked out recently, has started to support it.

In fact, before this travel motive, by chance, I started to be somewhat interested in the mechanism and algorithm of virtual currency from about the middle of February, and I read some books during my commute, but now that my work and private life have calmed down a little, I took concrete action. I took concrete action.

2. you should understand and have a clear image of it before you start

Here, I would like to introduce some reference materials.

As mentioned below, I believe it is better to read the works and have a more or less solid understanding of how bitcoin works than to just start out.

The mechanics and use of Bitcoin have already been explained in numerous works and websites. In the works, I have learned a great deal here.

仮想通貨革命—ビットコインは始まりにすぎない

Yukio Noguchi

ダイヤモンド社 2014-06-06

Amazonで詳しく見る by G-Tools

It is very well explained. I think it’s a must-read guide to get a good understanding of what makes bitcoin so great and how it works first. There are many points that are difficult to understand, but please read this thoroughly first.

On a personal note.

First of all, I think it’s important to properly suppress this kind of background.

On the website, I referred to the following websites. However, you may want to read these websites after you have some understanding of bitcoin from the above works.

The second frequently asked question in particular was very well done and really helped to further my understanding.

3. how do you get bitcoins?

The following is written from the perspective of a novice user. I’ve been reading a lot of books and websites about bitcoin, but most of them seem to be about technology.

The method I have chosen is as follows.

1. 自分のビットコインウォレット（以下、ウォレット）を作成
2. 日本円を取り扱っているビットコイン取引所を選択。その取引所の口座に日本円を入金
3. 取引所に入金した日本円を、取引所経由でビットコインと交換
4. 日本円を交換して取引所口座に入金されたビットコインを自分のウォレットに送金

I’d like to explain in more detail what this means below.

4. a proper understanding of wallets and exchanges is the starting point

さて、いったいどうやってビットコインを入手するのか。最初は結構戸惑いました。しかし、はじめに「仮想通貨革命—ビットコインは始まりにすぎない」をしっかりと読んでから始めたのは、非常によかったと思っています。

「無駄な手数料を払うことなく」開始できたからです。

容易にはじめられる「販売所兼ウォレット」を提供しているウェブサービスでは、ビットコインの市場価格よりもはるかに高いレートでの日本円-ビットコイン交換となってしまうからです。ウォレットも代行しているので、その手数料も取られる、そういう仕組です。また、後述しますが、自己責任管理の考えから交換所は利用しないことにしました。

5. about wallet

少なくともまず理解すべきことは「ウォレットは原則、自己管理」であるということ。

A wallet can be said to be your account, if you will. However, when we think of an account, we tend to think of a traditional bank account, which is only possible if we trust the bank implicitly, so in this respect, self-management in Bitcoin is fundamentally different.

Then, it is “wallet” as the literal translation, but it is also slightly different. Because it also has a function like a transfer account.

いってみれば、ビットコインのウォレットは、「自己信用に基づく現実の財布と振込口座が融合したもの」といえるのかもしれません。

This self-management and self-reliance means that for those that can do it themselves, there are no extra management costs.

6. about the exchange

Next, let’s talk about exchanges. This is a website for individuals to trade directly in the exchange market. When ordinary people trade ordinary exchange or stocks in the market, they can only do so indirectly by first having a bank or securities company act on their behalf.

The mechanism is basically the same for Bitcoin. However, because it is not controlled by a major financial institution like the existing exchange market, the degree of freedom is high and the barriers to entry are overwhelmingly low.

ここで、抑えておきたいことは、取引所を利用するということは、自分自身で直接約定価格を決めるということです。一方で、交換所というのは相手の言い値で一方的に約定価格が決められてしまうということです。

Therefore, as a matter of course, the concept of market price, limit price, bit-ask spread, etc. will come up, so it is better to have some knowledge of stock and currency trading (experience is even better) when using the exchange.

第二回 Bitcoinをはじめてみました No.2に続きます。