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To cut through some of this confusion surrounding bitcoin, we need to divide it into two components. On the one hand, you've got bitcoin-the-token, a snippet of code which represents ownership of an electronic concept type of like a virtual 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 through a central authority, like a bank or payment gateway. It's made and kept electronically. Bitcoins arent printed, like dollars or euros theyre produced by computers all around the world, using free software.
It was the first instance of what we call cryptocurrencies, a growing asset class that shares some characteristics of traditional currencies, 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 produce a means of exchange, independent of any central authority, that could be transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable and immutable way.
Bitcoins most important feature is 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 servers spread around the world. This attracts individuals and groups that are uncomfortable with the control that banks or government institutions have over their money. .
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Bitcoin solves the dual spending issue of electronic currencies (in which digital assets can readily be replicated and re-used) via 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. Together with bitcoin, the integrity of the 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 attempt to manipulate a currencys value relative to others. Holders of the currency (and notably citizens with very little alternative) bear the price.
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Together with bitcoin, on the other hand, the distribution is tightly controlled by the underlying algorithm. Even a small number of new bitcoins trickle every hourand will continue to do so at a diminishing rate until a maximum of 21 million has been reached. This creates bitcoin more attractive as an advantage in theory, if demand grows and the distribution remains the same, the value will increase. .
Even though senders of traditional electronic payments are often identified (for verification purposes, and to comply with anti-money laundering and other legislation), users of bitcoin in theory function in semi-anonymity. Since there is no central validator, users do not need to identify themselves Home Page 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, each user is identified by the address of his or her pocket. Transactions can, with some effort, be monitored this way. Additionally, law enforcement has developed methods to identify consumers if necessary.
Furthermore, most exchanges are required by legislation to perform identity checks on their customers before they're allowed to purchase or sell bitcoin, facilitating another way that bitcoin utilization can be monitored. Since the network is transparent, the progress of a specific transaction is observable to all.
This is because there is no central adjudicator that can say okay, return the money. When a transaction is recorded on the network, and when greater than an hour has passed, it is not possible to modify.
Even though this might disquiet some, it will mean that any transaction on the bitcoin network cannot be tampered with.
The smallest unit of a bitcoin is referred to as a satoshi. It's one hundred millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001) in todays prices, about one hundredth of a cent. This could conceivably enable microtransactions that traditional electronic money cannot.
Bitcoin is a digital currency, also known as a cryptocurrency. It had been invented in 2008 with an anonymous person or group named Satoshi Nakamoto.