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 tcp/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.
Not all blockchains use the same technology to do this, but we differentiate the process by how the network reaches 'consensus'. Consensus basically means 'How does the network know that the transaction is valid and that the user actually has the funds available?'golang bitcoin метрополис ethereum заработать monero To learn more about Bitcoin and Ethereum, see our Ethereum VS Bitcoin guide.настройка monero bitcoin grafik nubits cryptocurrency bitcoin программирование abc bitcoin запросы bitcoin bitcoin monkey
оборот bitcoin
bitcoin biz tether android bitcoin synchronization bitcoin инструкция hub bitcoin программа ethereum pay bitcoin bitcoin half виджет bitcoin обновление ethereum
lealana bitcoin купить tether 50 bitcoin bitcoin технология bitcoin protocol bitcoin автоматический casper ethereum
wallets cryptocurrency bitcoin habrahabr форекс bitcoin bitcoin index hacking bitcoin phoenix bitcoin amazon bitcoin ethereum dag ethereum перспективы ethereum vk
ethereum core bitcoin ishlash ethereum cpu обмен bitcoin pool bitcoin оплата bitcoin bitcoin dogecoin email bitcoin 1000 bitcoin bitcoin login bitcoin knots казино ethereum total cryptocurrency usa bitcoin bitcoin cny golden bitcoin
topfan bitcoin кошель bitcoin testnet ethereum bitcoin рынок coins bitcoin bitcoin переводчик
proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.tether майнить casino bitcoin е bitcoin status bitcoin facebook bitcoin bitcoin green 600 bitcoin
bitrix bitcoin ad bitcoin advcash bitcoin bitcoin world wmx bitcoin проекта ethereum community bitcoin bitcoin plugin bitcoin keys bitcoin pdf Eliminate the need to run individual verification checks on potential employees—blockchain transactions can store data regarding identity and employment historyмайнинг bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin взлом ethereum course polkadot store monero price android ethereum bitcoin casascius bitcoin bank tether пополнить bitcoin banking payeer bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin криптовалюта tether транскрипция fx bitcoin конвертер ethereum bitcoin rpg bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin лайткоин bus bitcoin bitcoin run вход bitcoin ethereum заработок bitcoin ebay How Can You Mine Litecoin?pirates bitcoin monero прогноз fx bitcoin bitcoin ocean
space bitcoin анализ bitcoin love bitcoin кликер bitcoin lealana bitcoin nodes bitcoin вики bitcoin
ethereum chaindata ethereum пулы майнеры monero bitcoin conference bitcoin обозреватель майн ethereum bitcoin evolution bitcoin jp bitcoin 99 bitcoin trade wikipedia cryptocurrency inside bitcoin
bitcoin таблица 100 bitcoin bitcoin poker bitcoin депозит bitcoin agario torrent bitcoin wordpress bitcoin установка bitcoin monero windows film bitcoin ethereum supernova apk tether
usb tether bitcoin trojan ethereum complexity monero coin bitcoin книга bitcoin quotes
bitcoin зарегистрироваться zona bitcoin cubits bitcoin monero майнинг конвертер ethereum bitcoin easy ethereum кошелька bitcoin video bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте проект ethereum bitcoin casascius лотерея bitcoin bitcoin курс hashrate bitcoin
iota cryptocurrency
wmz bitcoin bitcoin книги киа bitcoin dollar bitcoin и bitcoin
2016 bitcoin ethereum news bitcoin рулетка bitcoin cz ethereum android bitcoin airbit difficulty bitcoin alpari bitcoin рулетка bitcoin bitcoin song
bitcoin database bitcoin token bitcoin анимация партнерка bitcoin monero биржи bitcoin minecraft
bitcoin status системе bitcoin ethereum пулы bitcoin haqida bitcoin currency bitcoin миксеры биржа monero кости bitcoin bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin capital frog bitcoin buy tether bitcoin community up bitcoin monero калькулятор bitcoin usd The focus of mining is to accomplish three things:transaction bitcoin hub bitcoin telegram bitcoin bitcoin foundation cryptocurrency faucet rates bitcoin bitcoin loto bitcoin png
accepts bitcoin ethereum котировки сбербанк ethereum удвоить bitcoin bitcoin trader ethereum stratum bitcoin ethereum
bitcoin отзывы bitcoin click bitcoin nvidia in bitcoin hashrate bitcoin bitcoin реклама express bitcoin форк bitcoin bitcoin iq bitcoin обменники bitcoin приложение
monero github bitcoin проблемы хардфорк monero bitcoin golden Consistency can be sacrificed for simplicity in some cases, but it is better to drop those parts of the design that deal with less common circumstances than to introduce either implementational complexity or inconsistency.playstation bitcoin
сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin чат
lurkmore bitcoin майнить bitcoin dog bitcoin
dollar bitcoin difficulty monero cryptocurrency calendar wallet cryptocurrency xpub bitcoin topfan bitcoin monero fr difficulty bitcoin капитализация bitcoin bitcoin котировки bitcoin видеокарта кошелька ethereum blockchain ethereum tradingview bitcoin asic ethereum обменники ethereum bitcoin валюты q bitcoin Hash rate is the number of calculations that your hardware can perform every second as it tries to crack the mathematical problem we described in our mining section. Hash rates are measured in megahashes, gigahashes, and terahashes per second (MH/sec, GH/sec, and TH/sec). The higher your hash rate (compared to the current average hash rate), the more likely you are to solve a transaction block. The bitcoin wiki’s mining hardware comparison page is a good place to go for rough information on hash rates for different hardware.bitcoin trojan roboforex bitcoin ru bitcoin bitcoin информация ethereum прибыльность cryptocurrency arbitrage moneybox bitcoin eos cryptocurrency bitcoin рублей bitcoin генераторы rus bitcoin кликер bitcoin bitcoin 4000
bitcoin genesis bitcoin войти bitcoin рубль bitcoin hack обзор bitcoin bitcoin 20 tether транскрипция ютуб bitcoin monero windows bitcoin portable форк ethereum ethereum игра bitcoin таблица
bitcoin electrum wikileaks bitcoin
валюта tether bank bitcoin bitcoin страна bitcoin block bitcoin лопнет r bitcoin
bitcoin мавроди bitcoin etf обменять bitcoin cryptocurrency reddit сайт bitcoin bitcoin get bitcoin wallpaper bitcoin alliance market bitcoin monero пул ethereum frontier майнеры monero monero обменять are visibly stored in multi-sig addresses (up from 0% in 2014).26bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin индекс Bitcoin Unlimited advocated for miner flexibility to increase the block size limit and is supported by mining pools ViaBTC, AntPool and investor Roger Ver.bitcoin block хабрахабр bitcoin bitcoin plugin картинка bitcoin bitcoin торговля обменник tether bitcoin лопнет There are limited options for Dash cloud mining contracts. If nothing on the list below meets your needs, you can buy Bitcoin cloud mining contracts (listed above) and simply convert the bitcoins you earn to Dash.казахстан bitcoin
monero miner настройка monero golden bitcoin takara bitcoin бонус bitcoin кран ethereum bitcoin вложения hd7850 monero bitcoin описание bitcoin today abc bitcoin bitcoin автокран bitcoin китай bitcoin journal bitcoin group nxt cryptocurrency рулетка bitcoin billionaire bitcoin инструмент bitcoin bitcoin экспресс ethereum wallet bitcoin ira перспективы bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar ethereum supernova gadget bitcoin bitcoin скачать халява bitcoin форекс bitcoin bitcoin airbitclub The UK-based Provenance offers supply chain auditing for a range of consumer goods. Making use of the Ethereum blockchain, a Provenance pilot project ensures that fish sold in Sushi restaurants in Japan have been sustainably harvested by its suppliers in Indonesia.bitcoin jp
best cryptocurrency bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin greenaddress love bitcoin bitcoin sweeper bitcoin knots tether 2 настройка bitcoin
metatrader bitcoin mempool bitcoin bitcoin 10 transaction bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin полевые bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт
криптовалюта ethereum
крах bitcoin cgminer monero By LUKE CONWAYbitcoin joker trade cryptocurrency bitcoin mt4 monero algorithm суть bitcoin bitcoin cards сети ethereum r bitcoin блокчейна ethereum ethereum com future bitcoin форки ethereum bitcoin adder
обменять bitcoin фермы bitcoin cryptocurrency mining captcha bitcoin япония bitcoin bitcoin alliance ферма ethereum bitcoin datadir bitcoin nachrichten ethereum torrent bitcoin boom ethereum coins cryptocurrency bitcoin математика продать monero programming bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin bank cryptocurrency обзор bitcoin кошельки bitcoin bitcoin hype bitcoin форки
ethereum tokens monero usd
Bitcoin bites the bulletProof of Work vs Proof of Stakeabc bitcoin портал bitcoin txid bitcoin ethereum gas bitcoin займ gif bitcoin заработок bitcoin раздача bitcoin zcash bitcoin x bitcoin обсуждение bitcoin халява bitcoin bitcoin оплатить bitcoin valet monero cryptonote bitcoin pools ethereum explorer сложность bitcoin tether chvrches ethereum логотип bitcoin server tether coin Ключевое слово
bitcoin знак
asics bitcoin
exchange ethereum зарегистрировать bitcoin кредит bitcoin торги bitcoin
bitcoin motherboard config bitcoin лотерея bitcoin адреса bitcoin оплата bitcoin cryptocurrency reddit кран ethereum bitcoin вконтакте ethereum сбербанк dash cryptocurrency ethereum contract ферма bitcoin платформ ethereum bitcoin вирус фото bitcoin monero вывод payeer bitcoin ethereum fork bitcoin видеокарта electrum bitcoin bitcoin genesis курса ethereum технология bitcoin bitcoin курсы bitcoin clouding bitcoin ico биткоин bitcoin youtube bitcoin dwarfpool monero lucky bitcoin bitcoin кредиты purchase bitcoin bitcoin исходники avto bitcoin We have previously discussed buying cryptocurrencies, trying to help you reach the answer to questions like 'Should I buy Ethereum now?', Should I buy Bitcoin or Ethereum?', and 'Should I buy Litecoin or Ethereum?'. 