Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) is the world’s first and most popular cryptocurrency, created in 2008 by an unknown person (or group) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was released as open-source software and explained in depth in the famous whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. Bitcoin and its corresponding blockchain represent a new type of P2P digital money. Bitcoin is based on a “Proof of Work” (PoW) whereby miners complete math equations and are rewarded Bitcoin in return for the work they put into the mining. There is no such thing as a physical Bitcoin. Instead, all of the world’s bitcoins live on the Bitcoin blockchain and are stored in user Bitcoin accounts. The word Bitcoin refers to both the Bitcoin blockchain network and units of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. The plural of Bitcoin is simply Bitcoin, and the abbreviation used on cryptocurrency exchanges is BTC.