What is Bitcoin?

In 2009 Bitcoins was created and became the first digital currency available on the market. The idea of Bitcoin was first revealed in a newspaper article by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto is still very anonymous and we know very little about the founder of Bitcoin.

The idea with Bitcoin was to create a currency that had lower transactions fees and was not regulated by any government. Bitcoins could also be used all around the world. Bitcoins are only based on the internet and there is no such thing as physical bitcoins. All the balances are found on a transparent ledger that everyone can use and access. On this ledger, you can also see all the Bitcoin transactions.

Legal Tender

A legal tender is all the things that are recognized by law and used to settle public and private debt. An example of a legal tender is national currency. Even though Bitcoin is not a legal tender it is a very popular currency. The popularity of Bitcoins has sparked a wide range of new virtual currencies – Altcoins.

Understand Bitcoin

Bitcoins is a digital currency that are built by computers that run Bitcoin´s code. The computers also store Bitcoin's blockchain. Because this blockchain have same blocks and same transaction people can easily see how new blocks are being filled which makes the system transparently and the system is bullet proof.

It is public — and private keys that balances the Bitcoins token. These keys are very long strings of assembled numbers and letters that are linked through a mathematical encryption algorithm. This mathematical encryption algorithm is the thing that was used to create the keys.

• Private key: This is thought of to be like a guarded secret and is only being used to authorize Bitcoin transmissions.
• Public key: Is like an address that is published to the world and others may send Bitcoins.

It is easy to confuse Bitcoin keys with Bitcoin wallets. A Bitcoin wallet is a digital or physical device that one can use to track ownership of coins. The term “wallet” is not the best term to describe this device. A Bitcoin can never be stored in a wallet. Bitcoins are decentrally on a blockchain.
Bitcoin uses a peer-to-peer technology. It is used to facilitate payments instantly. It is nodes and miners that own and participate in the Bitcoin network. Miners are those who are paid in Bitcoin for the work they do on the transactions on the blockchain. You can see miners as a decentralized authority that enforce credibility to the Bitcoin network.

The term Bitcoin mining is a process where Bitcoins are being released into circulation. When mining, the miners need to solve puzzles to discover new blocks. These blocks are later added to the blockchain. When adding these blocks on the blockchain, miners are paid in Bitcoin´s.

Bitcoins history

18/8 – 2008
Bitcoin.org were registered. It is still not public information on who registered the domain.

31/10 – 2008
Someone under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the article that was published at Metzdowd.com. This would later become the Magna Carta for how Bitcoin operates.

3/1 – 2009
Block 0 was mined – the first Bitcoin block ever created. On the block, you can read the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.

8/1 – 2009
On the Cryptography Mailing list, the first Bitcoin software were announced.

Some keys facts

• Bitcoin launched in 2009 and is today the world´s largest cryptocurrency.
• In 2017 the value of bitcoin reached a top 20,000 USD per coin. In the later years the currency is only valued to half of that.
• Bitcoin is managed by a decentralized ledger system – blockchain.
• By being the earliest and most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin has come to inspire other exciting projects in their blockchain space.

One huge positive aspect of Bitcoin is that it is the most open financial system that currently exists. People can use Bitcoin as payment all over the world 24/4. If you would like to learn more about Bitcoins and cryptocurrency visit this site.

Bitcoin has during the recent years gotten a rather bad reputation. This is because Bitcoins are used by criminals and grey market participants. Often used on the dark web marketplaces. One is to believe that Bitcoin´s is appealing to criminals due to the anonymity you can have when paying with Bitcoin´s.