Just wanted to share again a well known simple informative post about bitcoin
What is Ƀitcoin?
- Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a payment system invented by an unidentified programmer, or group of programmers, under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto
- Bitcoin was introduced on 31 October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list, and released as open-source software in 2009.
- There have been various claims and speculation concerning the identity of Nakamoto, none of which are confirmed.
- The system is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary.
- These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain, which uses bitcoin as its unit of account.
- Since the system works without a central repository or single administrator, the U.S. Treasury categorizes bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency.
- Bitcoin is often called the first cryptocurrency, although prior systems existed and it is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency.
- Bitcoin is the largest of its kind in terms of total market value.
- Bitcoins are created as a reward in a competition in which users offer their computing power to verify and record bitcoin transactions into the blockchain.
- This activity is referred to as mining and successful miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins.
- Besides being obtained by mining, bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.
- When sending bitcoins, users can pay an optional transaction fee to the miners. This may expedite the transaction being confirmed.
- In February 2015, the number of merchants accepting bitcoin for products and services passed 100,000. Instead of 2–3% typically imposed by credit card processors, merchants accepting bitcoins often pay fees in the range from 0% to less than 2%.
- Despite the fourfold increase in the number of merchants accepting bitcoin in 2014, the cryptocurrency did not have much momentum in retail transactions.
- The European Banking Authority and other sources have warned that bitcoin users are not protected by refund rights or chargebacks.
- The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, law enforcement, and media.
- Criminal activities are primarily focused on darknet markets and theft, though officials in countries such as the United States also recognize that bitcoin can provide legitimate financial services.
