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To cut through some of this confusion surrounding bitcoin, we need to separate it into two components. On the one hand, you have bitcoin-the-token, a snippet of code which represents ownership of an electronic concept sort of like a digital IOU. On the other hand, you have bitcoin-the-protocol, a dispersed network that maintains a ledger of balances of bitcoin-the-token.

The machine enables payments to be sent between users without passing via a central authority, like a bank or payment gateway. It's created and held electronically. Bitcoins arent printed, like dollars or euros theyre made by computers all around the planet, using free software.

It was the first example of what we call cryptocurrencies, a growing strength category that shares some characteristics of traditional currencies, together with verification based on cryptography.

A pseudonymous software developer going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin in 2008, within an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to generate a means of exchange, independent of any central power, which may be transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable and immutable manner.

Bitcoin can be utilized to cover things electronically, if both parties are willing. In that sense, its like conventional dollars, euros, or yen, that can also be traded digitally.

Bitcoins most important characteristic is that it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network. It's maintained by a group of volunteer coders, and run through an open network of committed computers spread around the globe. This brings individuals and groups who are uncomfortable with the control that banks or government institutions have over their money. .

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Bitcoin simplifies the double spending issue of electronic currencies (in which digital assets can easily be replicated and re-used) through 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. 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 try to manipulate a currencys value relative to others. Holders of this currency (and notably citizens with little alternative) bear the price.

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Together with bitcoin, on the other hand, the supply is tightly controlled by the underlying algorithm. A small number of new bitcoins trickle every hour, and will continue to do so at a diminishing rate until a maximum of 21 million has been attained. This creates bitcoin more appealing as an asset in concept, if demand grows and the distribution remains the same, the value will increase. .

While senders of traditional electronic payments additional reading are usually 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 filed, the protocol checks all prior transactions to confirm that the sender has the necessary bitcoin in addition to the authority to send them.

In practice, every user is identified by the address of his or her wallet. Transactions can, with some effort, be tracked this way. Additionally, law enforcement has developed methods to identify users if necessary.

Furthermore, most exchanges are required by law to perform identity checks on their clients before they are allowed to purchase or sell bitcoin, facilitating another way that bitcoin usage can be tracked. Since the network is transparent, the advancement of a particular transaction is visible to all.

This is because there is no central adjudicator that can say okay, return the money. If a transaction is recorded on the network, and if greater than an hour has passed, then it is impossible to change.

Even though this might disquiet some, it does mean that any transaction on the bitcoin network cannot be tampered with.

The smallest unit of a bitcoin is called a satoshi. It is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001) at todays prices, about 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 how bitcoins are mined, what it can be used for, as well as how you can buy, sell and save your bitcoin. In addition, we explain a few alternatives to bitcoin, in why not find out more addition to the way its underlying technology the blockchain works. .

Bitcoin is an electronic currency, also known as a cryptocurrency. It was invented in 2008 by an anonymous person or group named Satoshi Nakamoto.