Bitcoin Full Basic Introduction

What Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. There are no physical bitcoins, only balances kept on a public ledger that everyone has transparent access to. All bitcoin transactions are verified by a massive amount of computing power. Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any banks or governments, nor are individual bitcoins valuable as a commodity. Despite it not being legal tender, Bitcoin is very popular and has triggered the launch of hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, collectively referred to as altcoins. Bitcoin is commonly abbreviated as "BTC."

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Launched in 2009, bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Unlike fiat currency, bitcoin is created, distributed, traded, and stored with the use of a decentralized ledger system, known as a blockchain.

Bitcoin's history as a store of value has been turbulent; the cryptocurrency skyrocketed up to roughly $20,000 per coin in 2017, but less than years later, it was trading for less than half of that.

As the earliest virtual currency to meet widespread popularity and success, bitcoin has inspired a host of other cryptocurrencies in its wake.

Understanding Bitcoin

The bitcoin system is a collection of computers (also referred to as "nodes" or "miners") that all run bitcoin's code and store its blockchain. Metaphorically, a blockchain can be thought of as a collection of blocks. In each block is a collection of transactions. Because all the computers running the blockchain has the same list of blocks and transactions, and can transparently see these new blocks being filled with new bitcoin transactions, no one can cheat the system.

Anyone, whether they run a bitcoin "node" or not, can see these transactions occurring live. In order to achieve a nefarious act, a bad actor would need to operate 51% of the computing power that makes up bitcoin. Bitcoin has around 12,000 nodes, as of January 2021, and this number is growing, making such an attack quite unlikely.2

But in the event that an attack was to happen, the bitcoin miners—the people who take part in the bitcoin network with their computer—would likely fork to a new blockchain making the effort the bad actor put forth to achieve the attack a waste.

Balances of bitcoin tokens are kept using public and private "keys," which are long strings of numbers and letters linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm that was used to create them. The public key (comparable to a bank account number) serves as the address which is published to the world and to which others may send bitcoins.

The private key (comparable to an ATM PIN) is meant to be a guarded secret and only used to authorize bitcoin transmissions. Bitcoin keys should not be confused with a bitcoin wallet, which is a physical or digital device that facilitates the trading of bitcoin and allows users to track ownership of coins. The term "wallet" is a bit misleading, as bitcoin's decentralized nature means that it is never stored "in" a wallet, but rather decentrally on a blockchain.

Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin mining is the process by which bitcoins are released into circulation. Generally, mining requires the solving of computationally difficult puzzles in order to discover a new block, which is added to the blockchain.

One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places (100 millionths of one bitcoin), and this smallest unit is referred to as a Satoshi. If necessary, and if the participating miners accept the change, bitcoin could eventually be made divisible to even more decimal places.

History of Bitcoin

Aug. 18, 2008

The domain name bitcoin.org is registered. Today, at least, this domain is "WhoisGuard Protected," meaning the identity of the person who registered it is not public information.