Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency and payment network. It lets people send value over the internet without a bank or central authority.
Key points:
- Origin: Proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008; network launched in 2009.
- How it works: Transactions are recorded on a public ledger called a blockchain. Thousands of computers (nodes) keep copies and agree on the ledger’s state.
- Security/consensus: Miners use proof-of-work to add new blocks roughly every 10 minutes. This makes the history hard to change.
- Supply: Capped at 21 million coins. New issuance drops by half about every four years (“halving”) until around 2140.
- Ownership: You control bitcoin with c*****graphic private keys stored in a wallet. If you lose the keys, you lose access.
- Privacy: It’s pseudonymous. Activity is public, but addresses aren’t tied to real names by default.
- Use cases: Store of value, cross-border transfers, censorship-resistant payments. The Lightning Network enables faster, cheaper transactions.
- Risks/considerations: High price volatility, regulatory differences by country, scams, irreversible transactions, and the need for strong security. Miners’ energy use is significant and debated.
“Bitcoin” often refers to both the network and the asset; the asset’s ticker is BTC.
Feb 16 2026, 15:24Mark