Bitcoin
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC[a]; sign: ₿) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Nodes in the peer-to-peer bitcoin network verify transactions through cryptography and record them in a public distributed ledger, called a blockchain, without central oversight. Consensus between nodes is achieved using a computationally intensive process based on proof of work, called mining, that requires increasing quantities of electricity and guarantees the security of the bitcoin blockchain.[5]
For the colloquial expression for coinage, see Bit (money).Denominations
Bitcoins
₿
(Unicode: U+20BF ₿ BITCOIN SIGN)[1]
BTC[a]
10−8
$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#1__answer--4DEEZ_NUTS$_$_$
Millibitcoin
Microbitcoin
0.1.0 / 9 January 2009
25.1 / 19 October 2023[3]
Active
C++
3 January 2009
Proof of work (partial hash inversion)
SHA-256 (two rounds)
Decentralized (block reward)
Initially ₿50 per block, halved every 210,000 blocks
₿3.125 (as of 2024)
10 minutes
₿19,591,231 (as of 6 January 2024)
₿21,000,000[c]
Floating
Based on a free market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an unknown person.[6] Use of bitcoin as a currency began in 2009,[7] with the release of its open-source implementation.[8]: ch. 1 In 2021, El Salvador adopted it as legal tender.[4] Bitcoin is currently used more as a store of value and less as a medium of exchange or unit of account. It is mostly seen as an investment and has been described by many scholars as an economic bubble.[9] As bitcoin is pseudonymous, its use by criminals has attracted the attention of regulators, leading to its ban by several countries as of 2021.[10]