What is Bitcoin (cryptocurrency)?

Bitcoin is a digital payment currency that utilizes cryptocurrency (a digital medium of exchange), blockchain technology, and a peer-to-peer (P2P) network as opposed to a central authority (such as a bank) to create and manage monetary transactions. The open-source, P2P Bitcoin network facilitates the creation of all bitcoin and manages all bitcoin transactions.

Often referred to as "cash for the Internet," Bitcoin is one of several popular digital payment currencies along with Litecoin, Peercoin, and Namecoin. When the word Bitcoin is capitalized, it usually refers to the software and systems used for bitcoin (in lowercase it refers to the actual currency). Exchange your Bitcoin BTC to Visa/MasterCard USD with bitcoin visa

.

Bitcoin history

First introduced in 2009, bitcoin is considered the biggest, most widely traded cryptocurrency in use today. Bitcoin is an implementation of the cryptocurrency concept that was described by Wei Dai in 1998 on the cypherpunks mailing list. Dai suggested a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a traditional bank or other central authority.

In 2008, the Bitcoin specification and proof of concept were published in a cryptography mailing list by a person or group named Satoshi Nakamoto. The first bitcoin transaction took place in early 2009, effectively mining the first block. Satoshi Nakamoto supposedly left the project in late 2010 without revealing any identifying information, as noted in the Official Bitcoin FAQ. Despite immense speculation, no conclusive evidence has pointed to the true identity (or identities) behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym.