Do you like security, speed, and low to zero transaction costs when conducting financial transactions? Bitcoin aims to offer all three.

Security, speed, and low transaction costs are among bitcoin’s objectives. In a peer-to-peer network, there are no middle-men charging fees for clearing transactions, operating a call center, or maintaining the security of a database. Some types of fraud are much less likely than in traditional systems since the existence of a balance and the validity of transactions are constantly checked and updated by thousands of distributed, independent nodes in the network that do not close based on traditional banking hours. Transactions clear almost immediately instead of waiting on a large market or a Federal bank to balance its books.

Bitcoins can be easily acquired by using mobile apps and online services, and there is an expanding world of users and merchants who accept bitcoins as a method of payment. Consumers can maintain a higher degree of anonymity in such transactions as well, since, in a traditional payment system, many companies and banks require significant amounts of personally identifying information about the payor to be held and shared between banks, credit card companies, and merchants. If these large databases are hacked, all of the personal information of cardholders and bank customers may be compromised.