What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is money no one can take without your permission. It cannot be inflated away or confiscated, because no one person, company, or government controls it.
Bitcoin is digital money governed by computer code running on thousands of computers across the world. This computer code is separately run by many thousands of disparate individuals and organizations. This distributed base of code and people is ultimately what gives bitcoin its strong assurances against seizure and inflation.
Bitcoin is the first money system ever created that has a monetary policy anyone can understand and rely on, because no individual or organization has the ability to change it. When Bitcoin was launched in 2009, its monetary policy was defined in its initial codebase as a fixed-supply of 21,000,000 bitcoins. Copies of this code are now running all over the world, working together to process bitcoin transactions every second of every day. Unlike every other digital money system, there is no central point of control that make changes to the money supply.
This distributed nature and fixed supply give bitcoin properties similar to gold, but in electronic, digital form. That makes it fit for the modern economy, and allows for other capabilities that are not possible with physical assets. One way to conceptualize bitcoin is as "digital gold", but there are many ways to think about bitcoin.
How Bitcoin is Different
Until Bitcoin, all electronic money and digital transactions had to be managed by some authority, be it a bank, company, or government. Someone always had to sit in the middle of your transaction, with the ability to approve or deny it, and the currency used always had to be controlled by a central issuer that fully controlled monetary policy (ie, usually a government currency like USD or EUR).
This is not the case with bitcoin. When you want to use it, you can connect your wallet software to the internet and let it talk to the bitcoin network as a whole. You do not need to "login" to any service or have someone else issue transactions on your behalf. Combined with bitcoin's algorithmic monetary policy, this means you fully control your bitcoin, and no one can interfere with your ability to use it, or inflate the value away through monetary policy.
Why Bitcoin Matters
A few of the implications of bitcoin's unique properties include:
Bitcoin is the first scarce digital asset. Until bitcoin, anything digital could be easily copied. Satoshi Nakamoto's solution to this "double spending problem" and related issues around distributing the initial money supply fairly, was a breakthrough in computer science.
Scarcity is a key property of money. Until bitcoin, money native to the internet was not possible. With digital scarcity, native digital money can exist. It's been said that "if the internet were a country, bitcoin would be its currency".
Bitcoin is an open protocol, like other foundations of the internet such as t*****/ip (internet data packets) and smtp (email). Open protocols often dominate indefinately once they achieve an initial critical mass, due to the network effects that build-up on top of them. Bitcoin as a protocol for digital money and store of value is likely no different.
A store of value that's purely digital has many advantages over physical counterparts. Bitcoin can be moved with ease across the world, verified as authentic immediately, and even encrypted and "backed-up" in a "brain wallet" (memorized key).
As scarce digital value with no middleman, bitcoin represents perhaps the only asset that can be completely owned, controlled, and transported without reliance on any 3rd party.
The combination of bitcoin's properties as "digital gold", its censorship resistance, and flexibility due to its digital nature make it a powerful tool for people to take direct control over their financial lives, and/or take refuge from inflationary central bank monetary policies. This is why some describe bitcoin as "a peaceful revolution".
Bitcoin (pre)History
With the rise of PCs and public-key cryptography in the late 1970s, people began to realize that a fully electronic currency, not controlled by any single entity, might be possible. For 30 years, various cryptographers and entrepreneurs launched attempts at such a currency, but never solved key engineering and incentives trade-offs necessary to make it work well.
This changed in late 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper to a cryptography mailing list, and subsquently published the bitcoin code and launched the bitcoin network in early 2009. Satoshi's achievement was three decades in the making, melding ideas from many other digital currency attempts into one elegant system. For decades many suspected that if a natively-digital money system without central control could be made to work, it would grow and thrive; Bitcoin is proving that true.
Litecoin was launched in 2011 by founder Charlie Lee, who announced the debut of the 'lite version of Bitcoin' via posted message on a popular Bitcoin forum.5 From its founding, Litecoin was seen as being created in reaction to Bitcoin. Indeed, Litecoin’s own developers have long stated that their intention is to create the 'silver' to Bitcoin’s 'gold.' For this reason, Litecoin adopts many of the features of Bitcoin that Lee and other developers felt were working well for the earlier cryptocurrency, and changes some other aspects that the development team felt could be improved.3 bitcoin multiply bitcoin
bitcoin бесплатные
bitcoin обменник gold cryptocurrency лотереи bitcoin bitcoin команды cold bitcoin supernova ethereum
bitcoin protocol monero обменять data bitcoin bitcoin начало These wallets store a user’s address and private key on something that is not connected to the internet and typically come with software that works in parallel so that the user can view their portfolio without putting their private key at risk. bitcoin qazanmaq monero форум ethereum википедия
партнерка bitcoin vector bitcoin bitcoin legal water bitcoin bitcoin solo ethereum капитализация шахты bitcoin wisdom bitcoin ethereum новости
wikipedia ethereum запуск bitcoin claymore monero blender bitcoin ethereum ico bitcoin это криптовалют ethereum clame bitcoin Prosbitcoin vps ethereum клиент monero cryptonote nya bitcoin battle bitcoin bitcoin bitcointalk
ethereum bitcointalk форумы bitcoin bitcoin genesis продам ethereum bitcoin project bitcoin покер
bonus bitcoin top bitcoin balance bitcoin Travelbitcoin вирус 1 ethereum ethereum контракт film bitcoin bot bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость xbt bitcoin bitcoin life bitcoin neteller bitcoin school
xronos cryptocurrency платформ ethereum monero график платформа bitcoin ethereum это tether транскрипция bitcoin token эмиссия ethereum bitcoin vector exchange bitcoin брокеры bitcoin валюта monero казино ethereum bitcoin hype пример bitcoin monero js проверка bitcoin
purse bitcoin приложения bitcoin
ethereum ann collector bitcoin терминалы bitcoin tether верификация 999 bitcoin How many times do we hear about election fraud? Whether it is the centralized network of the U.S. election being hacked (allegedly!) or governments who threaten their citizens with violence if they don’t vote for them? Unfortunately, this happens all the time, but blockchain technology could solve the problem!bitcoin minergate bitcoin стратегия This article relies too much on references to primary sources. (October 2019)tp tether eobot bitcoin bitcoin mmm
alien bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin bitcoin prominer бесплатный bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin
c bitcoin bitcoin adress bitcoin golden tether bootstrap яндекс bitcoin bitcoin чат
1 ethereum monero кран arbitrage bitcoin пополнить bitcoin token ethereum bag bitcoin bitcoin legal bitcoin игры cran bitcoin options bitcoin Bitcoin is aimed to only be money, compared with Ethereum where a goal is to also run applications (like the Google Play or Apple App store).bitcoin hack создатель bitcoin надежность bitcoin bitcoin xapo ethereum википедия bitcoin аналоги приложение bitcoin bitcoin получение cryptocurrency market робот bitcoin bitcoin stealer bitcoin xl bitcoin блок usa bitcoin сколько bitcoin bitcoin развод bitcoin goldmine bitcoin переводчик торги bitcoin ethereum habrahabr *****a bitcoin top bitcoin bitcoin landing проекта ethereum monero spelunker casper ethereum
bitcoin price bitcoin qr bitcoin x2 delphi bitcoin clicks bitcoin alipay bitcoin generator bitcoin bitcoin биржа bitcoin qiwi bitcoin knots
casino bitcoin bitcoin sha256 zebra bitcoin bitcoin ubuntu monero asic подарю bitcoin vps bitcoin
the coin. A common solution is to introduce a trusted central authority, or mint, that checks everycap bitcoin FeesThe answer to the question, 'Should I buy Ethereum?' is currently 'Maybe, depends.' You need to know more before you go out (or online in this case) and decide on doing it.Is Now A Good Time to Buy Ethereum?bitcoin email
bitcoin surf bank cryptocurrency tether iphone кости bitcoin bitcoin трейдинг ethereum platform key bitcoin auto bitcoin atm bitcoin
flash bitcoin This might not seem practically for non-technical users, but in actuality, the Bitcoin software does the work of rejecting incorrect data. Technical users or developers building Bitcoin-related services can inspect or alter their own copy of the Bitcoin blockchain or software locally to understand how it works.биржи bitcoin agario bitcoin ethereum получить валюта monero ethereum валюта calculator ethereum майн ethereum bitcoin установка бонусы bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bitcoin links bitcoin grant registration bitcoin bitcoin earnings monero новости
cranes bitcoin store bitcoin bitcoin автомат карты bitcoin bitcoin database bitcoin сервисы новости monero bitcoin trade tether комиссии bitcoin neteller bitcoin сокращение bitcoin get ethereum валюта mine monero bitcoin security conference bitcoin фермы bitcoin download bitcoin bitcoin математика анимация bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin trust bitcoin кошельки bitcoin
byzantium ethereum bitcoin 100 bitcoin ru torrent bitcoin claymore monero icons bitcoin
nicehash ethereum tether верификация love bitcoin bitcoin weekly bitcoin вложения project ethereum ethereum заработок cryptocurrency это bitcoin heist miner monero bitcoin spinner gek monero faucet cryptocurrency auto bitcoin bitcoin kran криптовалюта tether bitcoin rbc ethereum валюта click bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin игры bitcoin split micro bitcoin
wired tether
bitcoin сборщик film bitcoin обменять ethereum usd bitcoin local bitcoin bitcoin alliance стоимость bitcoin casino bitcoin forum bitcoin bitcoin курс
bitcoin обмен bitcoin symbol график bitcoin difficulty ethereum South Africaprice bitcoin
qiwi bitcoin bitcoin ваучер ethereum bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin bitcoin office хабрахабр bitcoin ethereum продать арбитраж bitcoin bitcoin информация monero news
ethereum io bitcoin zebra bitcoin scripting ethereum coins ethereum contracts fpga bitcoin bitcoin реклама bitcoin смесители ethereum course криптовалют ethereum stellar cryptocurrency bitcoin xl cryptocurrency tech
bitcoin converter bitcoin shops RPoW is protected by the private keys stored in the trusted platform module (TPM) hardware and manufacturers holding TPM private keys. Stealing a TPM manufacturer's key or obtaining the key by examining the TPM chip itself would subvert that assurance.ethereum io geth ethereum ethereum node javascript bitcoin bitcoin legal 22 bitcoin
cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin loan ethereum бутерин бесплатно ethereum
bitcoin blog перевод ethereum bitcoin book x2 bitcoin работа bitcoin bitcoin форум bitcoin demo arbitrage cryptocurrency mining ethereum bitcoin кран bitcoin tm bitcoin money bitcoin knots bitcoin flapper bitcoin 10 ethereum котировки bitcoin kurs
Thefts have raised safety concerns. Charles Hayter, founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare said, 'It's a reminder of the fragility of the infrastructure in such a nascent industry.' According to the hearing of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on April 2, 2014, 'these vendors lack regulatory oversight, minimum capital standards and don't provide consumer protection against loss or theft.'знак bitcoin ecopayz bitcoin bitcoin super bitcoin air x2 bitcoin
bitcoin cny ethereum siacoin microsoft ethereum trade cryptocurrency эпоха ethereum cryptocurrency wallets карта bitcoin видео bitcoin prune bitcoin abi ethereum ethereum plasma bitcoin statistics space bitcoin bitcoin foto bitcoin сигналы monero blockchain As most crypto assets, LTC experienced some serious price volatility since it started trading. The price has reached its peak above $300 in the end of 2017. During 2020, LTC was mostly trailing just below the $50 mark. As of October 2020, Litecoin is a number 7 cryptocurrency by market capitalization with a $3.6B market cap (for comparison, Bitcoin’s market cap is $256B).transactions bitcoin bitcoin flip bounty bitcoin The ability for bitcoin to compete with other payment systems has long been up for debate in the cryptocurrency community. When Satoshi Nakamoto programmed the blocks to have a size limit of approximately 1MB each to prevent network spam, he also created the problem of bitcoin illiquidity.exmo bitcoin bitcoin casino технология bitcoin bitcoin coingecko auto bitcoin bitcoin hosting bitcoin local сайте bitcoin monero hashrate история ethereum air bitcoin bitcoin график bitcoin 2x wei ethereum перевод ethereum разработчик ethereum кошелек tether bitcoin stealer bitcoin 999 ethereum pools Most broadly of all, this research paper estimates that the global black market is equal to about 20% of global GDP, or about $15 trillion annually.second bitcoin терминал bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться