Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized digital cryptocurrency . The Bitcoin network appeared in 2009 and is powered by mining as a result of which BTC coins are mined. Transactions on the BTC network are peer-to-peer, which means the direct transfer of funds from one user to another, without the participation of third parties and regulatory authorities in the form of banks, the state, etc.

Bitcoin cryptocurrency works on blockchain technology , which fundamentally distinguishes it from all previously created electronic currencies and payment systems. The Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain is not tied to any physical assets or “official” fiat currencies, and the price of the digital BTC coin is regulated exclusively by market supply and demand i.e. there so what value people themselves put into it, similar to gold for example.

Bitcoin has another big similarity to gold – its limited supply and total supply. In the case of bitcoin, its amount is strictly limited to 21,000,000 , while in 2019, 17,600,000 BTC have already been mined, i.e. more than 83%. And this figure does not take into account all the lost wallets with BTC tokens lying on them, and this happened often before. users negligently approached the correct storage of cryptocurrency on bitcoin wallets , due to the fact that the value of the coins at that time was not significant.

Thus, Bitcoin is a worldwide payment system without emission and inflation , through which transactions with this currency can be carried out. Its main difference from traditional payment systems is that the Bitcoin network does not have any control and processing center – all operations take place exclusively in a network of equal clients without intermediaries (peer to peer network, peer-to-peer network).

Bitcoin in simple words (with an explanatory video)

In simple words, bitcoin is one large registry file (for analogy, you can imagine Exel) where information about all payments and receipts is recorded, while this file cannot be faked or altered, and the value of the cryptocurrency is constantly increasing due to its limited amount and the absence of additional emission.

BTC is the very first cryptocurrency that appeared in 2009. For the first time, the principle of operation of the peer-to-peer bitcoin network, on which Satoshi Nakamoto worked, could be familiarized two years before the appearance of the digital currency. Despite the fact that Nakamoto managed to attract the attention of thousands of programmers to his project, no one then believed in his success.

The first transaction using bitcoin was carried out by an American, Hanech Laszlo, who offered 10,000 BTC to anyone who would bring two Italian pizzas to his house. It is difficult to imagine what emotions Laszlo experienced at the moment when the BTC rate began to grow rapidly.

Today, hundreds of millions of transactions take place using cryptocurrency. Therefore, to the question “what is bitcoin” we will answer in simple words – money that has its own rate in relation to another currency, but does not have a physical form.

Bitcoin (BTC) rate chart against US dollar, ruble and euro:

Distinctive features of BTC as a cryptocurrency

• There is no control.  Complete lack of control over the system by anyone. Millions of computers that mine bitcoins are included in this system. No one has the ability to dictate their terms to the owners of the cryptocurrency.
• Simple to use.  It takes about 5 minutes to create a BTC wallet that will be ready for immediate use. You will not be asked anything, you do not need to pay a penny.
• Anonymity and transparency.  It happens! Bitcoin wallet is completely anonymous and completely transparent at the same time. It is very easy to create a great variety of wallets without your name, phone number, etc. But the entire transaction history is stored in the bitcoin network (remember the blockchain). If you publicly advertise that this wallet is yours, then anyone can find out all your transactions and the amount of BTC on the account, in order to ensure anonymity, you need to use one wallet for one transaction.
• Irrevocable transactions. After sending bitcoins to the addressee, it is impossible to return them if the recipient does not want to do it himself.

How can you get bitcoins?

There are several ways to buy BTC. However, the process can be fraught with difficulties. For example, there are a large number of fraudulent websites listing fake coins from other blockchains.

There are practically no free ways to get BTC. After the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency rate, such services for receiving free electronic coins ceased to exist or switched to a different operating mode. To obtain cryptocurrency by any method, the costs of certain resources are required.

The main ways to get bitcoins:

• Cloud mining is the best way to get Bitcoin for 2019. It is a rental of the power of a cloud mining service in the form of a contract for a year. All the cryptocurrency mined by this power goes to your account. On average, the income is from 200% to 600% per year, it all depends on the course and the growth in the complexity of the network. But keep in mind in cloud mining there are a lot of play sites or pyramids, you can only trust old and proven services, there are not so many of them on the market, for example IQ Mining,HashFlare and Genesis Mining .
• Classic mining . Those who are engaged in mining, as it were, rent out the hash rate of their ASIKov and video cards for obtaining cryptocurrency by using computing power. There are many BTC mass mining farms.
• Cranes . The only free way to get bitcoins, but it is very time consuming and gives meager dividends. The user of the service only needs to click on advertising banners and videos, but the cost of the transition is very low, since  2017-2018 this method has become completely ineffective .
• Buying cryptocurrency . You can buy e-currency for money on special exchangers, a detailed overview of the most popular and reliable we posted here . Also some cryptocurrency exchanges support the deposit and withdrawal of fiat money, but not all.

How Bitcoin and BlockChain Technology Works

• The main principle of creation was that such a database was created that would not have a main server (was decentralized). All system participants keep encrypted copies of this database. If we consider bitcoin, then the base represents all operations performed with this cryptocurrency (extraction, transfer, purchase, sale). Absolutely everything is recorded in the database and is available to all system participants.
• Any new record in such a database is synchronized with all its copies for everyone who participates in this system. The matching algorithms come into play. If someone tries to steal something, he will have to replace the data of more than half of the system participants, because the network has over a million members, it is almost impossible.
• Each new block in the database contains information (hash) about the previous block, and so on, block by block. This information confirms that the block is intact, not altered or tampered with. In order to forge a block (payment), you will have to change the entire block chain, which is stored not in one place, but on millions of computers. And for this you need to get access to each of them. A pointless and very costly exercise.

With technology more or less clear, let’s move on to the principles that were laid down in Bitcoin:

• The BTC issue is limited, the maximum amount is 21 million. This principle shields cryptocurrency from inflation. At the moment, no one is able to print or discount them. It can be compared to gold because both gold and bitcoins can only be bought or mined.
• Mining (mining) bitcoin is a complex calculation process – enumeration of numbers, in which the hash is set by a special template. Mining is carried out on computers or special systems (farms). Mining is possible both on your own equipment and using cloud services .
• The complexity of this pattern is determined in such a way that for any number of miners (equipment in the network), Bitcoin appears once every 10 minutes. Whoever decrypts a block of transactions receives a reward in the form of BTC tokens.
• Computers that are involved in the mining of cryptocurrency simultaneously provide the ability to make transactions in the system, convey this information to all participants in the system, by adding and synchronizing this information between databases. All new transactions are confirmed once every 10 minutes when the next unit of cryptocurrency is mined.
• All users of the system have a specific address (cryptographic account) and a secret key, with the help of which transfers are signed from their account to the account of another user of the system. It looks like a regular e-wallet and password.

Differences between bitcoin and classic fiat money (€, dollars, euros)

BTC is the very first cryptocurrency that appeared in 2009. For the first time, the principle of operation of the peer-to-peer bitcoin network, on which a certain Satoshi Nakamoto worked, could be found two years before the appearance of the digital currency.

Decentralized currency, which is not controlled by any bank or exchange office, has always been a nightmare for the global financial system. It is scattered around the globe, works only online, is not provided with anything, and every user in the world is able to influence the course without leaving the computer. At the same time, the computing function of the server grows, which in the system can look like a continuous operation.

Electronic cryptocurrency has a number of striking differences from the usual cash and other valuable financial assets.

Bitcoin has the following differences:

• Decentralization. There is no central control body for the network; it is distributed to all computers used for computing resources. The decentralized system uses a special program code that regulates the work of network participants and the emission schedule.
• Irreversibility of transactions. After the cryptocurrency is transferred from one addressee to one of the online wallets to another (for example, webmoney), it cannot be returned to the original account.
• Limitation of emission. The mathematical algorithms are built in such a way that the generation of coins is closed. The total amount of BTC will never change.
• Low transfer fees. A feature of Bitcoin is the absence of any intermediaries in the transaction, due to which there is no commission fee. A small percentage of the commission can be for transactions with bank accounts.
• Does inflation affect the exchange rate? Global inflation is isolated from the financial economy, so inflation has no effect on the exchange rate, unlike conventional currencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) can be described in simple terms as follows: calculations of a mathematical nature generate the mining process into a small piece of computer code.

Today, hundreds of millions of transactions take place using cryptocurrency. Therefore, to the question “what is bitcoin” we will answer in simple words – money that has its own rate in relation to another currency, but does not have a physical form.

Unlike government banknotes, cryptocurrency cannot be printed. However, this does not mean at all that virtual coins (coins) appear out of nowhere. Cryptocurrency is a digital object that contains a colossal amount of information that has a cryptographic code. Simply put, it is a kind of virtual memory card that has a digital record.

In order to generate a new record, it is necessary to find the only correct solution to the most complex mathematical algorithm. Since even the smartest person is not able to cope with such a task, the computing power of a computer is used for these purposes.

Each cryptocurrency differs from each other not only in the uniqueness of the given how the bit of the problem can be used, but also in the total number of possible solutions, which subsequently turn into coins.

Why Bitcoin is needed and how can it be used?

If you happen to ask these investors why bitcoins are needed, most likely you will see only embarrassed looks and raised eyebrows. Gold, for example, is used in mints, in jewelry, as a conductor for high-precision electronics and as a material for medical implants.

Determining the spectrum of asset use is somewhat more complicated. If BTC is a true commodity, its value should not only consist of the value of an investment vehicle. So what is this asset used for?

As an alternative means of payment

If you spend enough time online, you may have noticed a growing number of projects accepting bitcoin as a means of payment. Big players in the market, including Overstock.com, Expedia, Newegg, DishNetwork and Microsoft, do not hesitate to do so.

Some companies only accept BTC. Why? Sometimes entrepreneurs do something that goes against the principles of traditional financial institutions, be it providing VPN traffic, selling marijuana, or showing adult videos. Since bitcoin uses a peer-to-peer system, can such services be safe from blocking their accounts? and their users will be anonymous.

In general, bitcoin has become quite popular. It is accepted by over 100,000 online and offline merchants and the number is growing every day.

As an alternative to a debit card

Bitcoin provides opportunities similar to banking services. In some regions, people already have access tobitcoin ATMs where you can withdraw funds from your wallet or top up it.

Such cards can be an alternative to debit bank cards. There is even a tangible bitcoin coin, but this is more of an expensive souvenir than a real value, since it can only contain the seed phrase needed to activate a real wallet.

As a permanent register of transactions

In January 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block of bitcoin , he left the following entry in it:

“The Times, January 3, 2009: Chancellor on the verge of another bank bailout.”

This reference to modern banking reflects one of the core elements of Bitcoin (BTC). The blockchain records all transactions of this cryptocurrency. More importantly, due to the fact that third-party data can be entered into records, the Bitcoin network can be used to exchange information and values ​​that are not related to itself. This mechanism is much better implemented by altcoins like Ethereum, but it was Bitcoin that first proposed such a concept.

Instead of fiat currency

Bitcoin is a turnkey solution for those who do not want or cannot use fiat currency, who have lost faith in central banks, who live in a country with a degrading economy or in a region where there is no stable currency. Aside from the recent overvolatility, the asset currently represents a good investment and a healthy alternative to fiat.

Of course, nobody knows what the future holds for BTC. However, the use cases described above are valid for the time being and, apparently, will be valid for a while.

Main technical characteristics and features

Bitcoin is a unit of information, a specific piece of computer code, expressed in mathematical calculations of computer power. The peculiarity of BTC is that it is an independent digital unit, which is not influenced by other currencies and payment systems, the economy of this network is completely independent.

Bitcoin blockchain specifications:

• formation of an information block: every 10 minutes;
• block reward: 25 coins;
• number of BTC in the world: 21 million;
• the complexity of the structure changes: every 2016 blocks (2 weeks).

Open source

The development and commissioning of cryptocurrency is carried out with open source code. This means that most users can make changes to the structure of bitcoin.

In addition, open source allows any user of a personal computer to start extracting, “mining” electronic money. This approach to development instantly eliminates errors in the system, helps to rapidly develop the exchange network and mine the # 1 cryptocurrency.

Blockchain technology

A blockchain containing information and built according to a certain pattern is called a blockchain. This blockchain grows and performs the function of distribution, database classification. Required for transactions, exchange operations with Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Blocks are formed simultaneously by many “miners”, after which they go to a special base (blockchain). Blocks contain all information about transactions, cryptocurrency owners. The number of transactions does not affect the rate at which block branches are formed.

Protecting transactions with electronic signatures

An electronic signature is what it is in simple understandable words: a password assigned to a new account. When registering on the Bitcoin network, all users are given unique signature keys. Only with their help it is possible to carry out a transaction from your account. In addition, there is the possibility of creating a joint account of several people with a multi-signature. To transfer currency from it, you will need to enter personal identifiers for at least two thirds of the account holders.

Bitcoin is made up of Satoshi

1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC.

There are 100 million Satoshi in 1 Bitcoin. You can send any amount to Satoshi, which makes the cryptocurrency very flexible for use in everyday life.

Answers to the most frequently asked questions about Bitcoin

In conclusion, we will answer all the most popular questions about the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

How many BTC are there in the world?

A currency that is not backed by traditional resources, capable of self-reproduction through the execution of certain programs on computers of network users, will instantly depreciate. To prevent this, an artificial limitation has been created that prevents the number of Bitcoin in the world from becoming more than 21 million.

All these millions are financial transactions in the network secured by computer power. At the moment, 14 million have been mined. Due to the constant complication of the mining algorithm, the emission of the last bitcoin is expected in 2140.

How does cryptocurrency appear?

Cryptocurrency appears through the efforts of users who use it, allocating computing power to process all transactions. Bitcoin mining – what is it in simple, reasonable words, how does electronic cryptocurrency appear?

Bitcoin does not have a transaction processing center, so users take on the task of providing computing processes. For the waste of the resource of their computer, they receive a strictly defined amount of btc. In total, up to 3600 units of currency can appear per day.

Who is issuing BTC?

The emission of bitcoin is clearly limited, limited, it is possible to intervene in this process only by leasing the computing power of your computer to the system. The people who do this are called miners, and for their services they receive Bitcoin issued daily in a limited amount.

Such an occupation is currently beneficial only to the owners of large firms, members of large pools. Smaller farms are already struggling to cope with the tasks that Bitcoin presents to them.

What is secured by the Bitcoin cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin – what it is in simple terms, can be described as a sophisticated version of a country’s nascent economy with undeveloped gold mining. A resource that has not been mined is worth nothing except a person’s promises to buy it in the future.

The use of cryptocurrency is based on the same principle: it appears due to demand, which gives rise to itself. The value of BTC is determined by people’s trust in the system, the willingness to conduct transactions with its help, which creates a financial pyramid or bubble, and this is a negative feature of Bitcoin.

The role of Bitcoin in the economy now and in the near future

In the modern market, bitcoin has aroused numerous investor interest, trading with BTC has been launched on the Internet, because, by accepting cryptocurrency as payment, the seller has the confidence that he can exchange it for other goods in the future.

If earlier cryptocurrency was a local method of payment and was used by a limited circle of people, now it is present on the Internet as an official means of currency. There are cases when salaries were issued with BTC tokens, and today it is possible to pay with them in restaurants, hotels, shops in many countries of the world.

Cryptocurrencies occupy a strong place in circulation on the territory of Western states, but they also gained popularity due to illegal actions in the space of the “deep” Internet, where it is used as the main unit of account.

There are many opportunities for speculative activity with the help of cryptocurrency, since its colossal distribution and the naturally increasing rate allows you to determine the benefits from implementation after a specific period of time.

The modern financial system is considered ineffective and unfair, therefore Bitcoin implies an alternative to it. In fact, it is an opportunity to produce, use and store money on an equal basis with other members of the common network. Nevertheless, over its history, bitcoin has repeatedly suffered a fall, but its rate is also maintained by the cost of electricity from mining installations, so it will be stable in the near future.

It is also important to note that Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralized currency, meaning it is not subject to government control. It is formed and regulated by the actions of the users themselves within the network, which ensures its reliability. All transactions from the network are made without the participation of intermediaries, so there are no additional costs for transferring funds.