Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency—money that lives on the internet without a central bank or company in charge.
Key points:
- What it is: A peer‑to‑peer electronic cash system introduced in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.
- How it works: Transactions are recorded on a public ledger called a blockchain. Thousands of nodes keep copies; miners use proof‑of‑work to add new blocks roughly every 10 minutes.
- Supply: Hard‑capped at 21 million coins. New issuance drops about every four years in “halvings,” making it scarce (“digital gold”).
- Ownership: You control coins with a private c*****graphic key. Wallets manage keys. If you lose your key (or seed phrase), you lose access.
- Properties: Borderless, permissionless, and resistant to censorship; transparent and traceable on-chain; transactions are irreversible.
- Units: 1 BTC is divisible into 100,000,000 satoshis (“sats”).
- Uses: Store of value, savings, and payments (especially cross‑border). Many also treat it as a speculative i*********.
- Speed and fees: On the base chain, confirmation can take minutes and fees vary; the Lightning Network (a second layer) enables faster, cheaper payments.
- Risks: High price volatility, regulatory uncertainty, scams and phishing, key/custody mistakes, and energy use from mining.
In short, Bitcoin is scarce, programmable internet money secured by open networks and c*****graphy, traded globally 24/7.
Feb 17 2026, 12:08Mark