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To cut through some of the confusion surrounding bitcoin, we need to divide it into two components. On the one hand, you have bitcoin-the-token, a snippet of code that represents ownership of a digital concept kind of like a digital IOU. On the other hand, you have bitcoin-the-protocol, a distributed network which maintains a ledger of balances of bitcoin-the-token.
The system enables payments to be sent between users without passing via a central authority, such as a bank or payment gateway. It is made and held electronically. Bitcoins arent printed, for example dollars or euros theyre produced by computers all around the planet, using free software.
It was the very first example of what we today call cryptocurrencies, a growing asset class which shares several characteristics of traditional currencies, with verification based on cryptography.
A pseudonymous software programmer going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto suggested bitcoin in 2008, within an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce a means of exchange, independent of any central power, which may be transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable and immutable way.
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Bitcoin can be used to pay for things electronically, if both parties are willing. In that sense, its similar to conventional dollars, euros, or yen, which are also traded digitally.
Bitcoins most important feature is it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network. It is maintained by a group of volunteer coders, and run by an open network of committed servers spread around the world. This attracts individuals and groups who are uncomfortable with all the control that banks or government institutions have over their money. .
Bitcoin solves the dual spending problem of electronic currencies (in which electronic assets can easily be replicated and re-used) via an ingenious combination of cryptography and economic incentives. In electronic fiat currencies, this function is fulfilled by banks, which gives them control over the traditional system. Together with bitcoin, the integrity of these transactions is maintained by a distributed and open network, owned by no-one. .
Fiat currencies (dollars, euros, yen, etc.) have an unlimited supply central banks can issue as many as they want, and can attempt to manipulate a currencys value relative to other people. Holders of the currency (and especially citizens with little alternative) keep the price.
While senders of traditional electronic payments are often identified (for verification purposes, and to abide by anti-money laundering and other legislation), users of bitcoin in theory operate in semi-anonymity. Since there's absolutely no central validator, users do not need to identify themselves when sending bitcoin to another user. When a transaction request is submitted, the protocol checks all previous transactions to confirm that the sender gets the necessary bitcoin as well as the ability to send them.
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In practice, each user is identified with the address of his or her wallet. Transactions can, with some effort, be tracked this way. Also, law enforcement has developed methods to identify consumers if necessary.
Furthermore, most exchanges are required by law to perform identity checks on their customers before they are permitted to purchase or sell bitcoin, facilitating another manner that bitcoin usage can be monitored. Since the network is transparent, the progress of a specific transaction is observable to all.
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This is because there is no central adjudicator that can say ok, return the money. If a transaction is listed on the network, and if greater than an hour has passed, then it is not possible to modify.
Even though this might disquiet a few, it does mean that any transaction on the bitcoin network cannot be tampered with.
The smallest unit of a bitcoin is referred to as a satoshi. It is one hundred a knockout post millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001) at todays prices, roughly one hundredth of a cent. This could conceivably enable microtransactions that traditional electronic money cannot.
Read to find out how bitcoin transactions are processed and the way bitcoins are mined, what it can be used for, in addition to how you can buy, sell and store your bitcoin. We also explain a few alternatives to bitcoin, in addition to how its underlying technology the blockchain functions. .
If you want to know what is Bitcoin, how you can get it and how it can assist you, without floundering into technical details, this guide is for you. It'll explain how the system operates, how you can use it for your gain, which scams to avoid. It will also guide you to resources which will help you store and use your very first pieces of digital currency.