Bitcoin

Bitcoin
Prevailing bitcoin logo
Logo
Denominations
PluralBitcoins
Symbol
(Unicode: U+20BF BITCOIN SIGN)[1]
CodeBTC[a]
Precision10−8
Subunits
11000Millibitcoin
11000000Microbitcoin
1100000000Satoshi[b][2]
Development
Original author(s)Satoshi Nakamoto
White paper"Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System"
Implementation(s)Bitcoin Core
Initial release0.1.0 / 9 January 2009 (2009-01-09)
Latest release25.1 / 19 October 2023 (2023-10-19)[3]
Code repositorygithub.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
Development statusActive
Written inC++
Source modelFree and open-source software
LicenseMIT License
Ledger
Ledger start3 January 2009 (2009-01-03)
Timestamping schemeProof of work (partial hash inversion)
Hash functionSHA-256 (two rounds)
Issuance scheduleDecentralized (block reward)
Initially ₿50 per block, halved every 210,000 blocks
Block reward₿3.125 (as of 2024)
Block time10 minutes
Circulating supply₿19,591,231 (as of 6 January 2024)
Supply limit₿21,000,000[c]
Valuation
Exchange rateFloating
Demographics
Official user(s)El Salvador[4]

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 guarantees the security of the bitcoin blockchain. Mining consumes increasing quantities of electricity and has been criticized for its environmental effects.[5]

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]

  1. ^ "Unicode 10.0.0". Unicode Consortium. 20 June 2017. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  2. ^ Bradbury, Danny (November 2013). "The problem with Bitcoin". Computer Fraud & Security. 2013 (11): 5–8. doi:10.1016/S1361-3723(13)70101-5. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  3. ^ "Bitcoin Core Releases". Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2023 – via GitHub.
  4. ^ a b "El Salvador's dangerous gamble on bitcoin". The editorial board. Financial Times. 7 September 2021. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  5. ^ Huang, Jon; O’Neill, Claire; Tabuchi, Hiroko (3 September 2021). "Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  6. ^ S., L. (2 November 2015). "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?". The Economist. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  7. ^ Davis, Joshua (10 October 2011). "The Crypto-Currency: Bitcoin and its mysterious inventor". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  8. ^ Antonopoulos, Andreas M. (2014). Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Crypto-Currencies. O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-1-4493-7404-4.
  9. ^ Wolff-Mann, Ethan (27 April 2018). "'Only good for drug dealers': More Nobel prize winners snub bitcoin". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  10. ^ Sun Yin, Hao Hua; Langenheldt, Klaus; Harlev, Mikkel; Mukkamala, Raghava Rao; Vatrapu, Ravi (2 January 2019). "Regulating Cryptocurrencies: A Supervised Machine Learning Approach to De-Anonymizing the Bitcoin Blockchain". Journal of Management Information Systems. 36 (1): 65. doi:10.1080/07421222.2018.1550550. ISSN 0742-1222. S2CID 132398387. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2023.


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