? What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is an
innovative payment network and a new kind of money. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer
technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions
and the network carries out the issuing of bitcoins collectively. Bitcoin is
open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone
can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows
exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system.
?? How does Bitcoin work?
From a user
perspective, Bitcoin is nothing more than a mobile app or computer program that
provides a personal Bitcoin wallet and allows a user to send and receive
bitcoins with them. This is how Bitcoin works for most users.
Behind
the scenes, the Bitcoin network is sharing a public ledger called the
"block chain". This ledger contains every transaction ever processed,
allowing a user’s computer to verify the validity of each transaction. The
authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures
corresponding to the sending addresses, allowing all users to have full control
over sending bitcoins from their own Bitcoin addresses. In addition, anyone can
process transactions using the computing power of specialized hardware and earn
a reward in bitcoins for this service. This is often called "mining".
??? Who created Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first
implementation of a concept called "cryptocurrency", which was first
described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list, suggesting the
idea of a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and
transactions, rather than a central authority. Satoshi Nakamoto published the
first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept in 2009 in a cryptography
mailing list. Satoshi left the project in late 2010 without revealing much
about himself. The community has since grown exponentially with many developers
working on Bitcoin.
Satoshi’s
anonymity often raised unjustified concerns, many of which are linked to
misunderstanding of the open-source nature of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin protocol and
software are published openly and any developer around the world can review the
code or make their own modified version of the Bitcoin software. Just like
current developers, Satoshi’s influence was limited to the changes he made
being adopted by others and therefore he did not control Bitcoin. As such, the
identity of Bitcoin’s inventor is probably as relevant today as the identity of
the person who invented paper.
???? Who controls the Bitcoin network?
Nobody
owns the Bitcoin network much like no one owns the technology behind email. All
Bitcoin users around the world control Bitcoin. While developers are improving
the software, they cannot force a change in the Bitcoin protocol because all
users are free to choose what software and version they use. In order to stay
compatible with each other, all users need to use software complying with the
same rules. Bitcoin can only work correctly with a complete consensus among all
users. Therefore, all users and developers have a strong incentive to protect
this consensus.
?????
Is Bitcoin really used by people?
Yes.
There are a growing number of businesses and individuals using Bitcoin. This
includes brick and mortar businesses like restaurants, apartments, law firms,
and popular online services such as Namecheap, WordPress, and Reddit. While
Bitcoin remains a relatively new phenomenon, it is growing fast. At the end of
August 2013, the value of all bitcoins in circulation exceeded US$ 1.5 billion
with millions of dollars worth of bitcoins exchanged daily.
WORKING, still more to come...
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