Bitcoin
Decentralized digital currency / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC[lower-alpha 1]; 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]
Denominations | |
---|---|
Plural | Bitcoins |
Symbol | ₿ (Unicode: U+20BF ₿ BITCOIN SIGN)[1] |
Code | BTC[lower-alpha 1] |
Precision | 10−8 |
Subunits | |
1⁄1000 | Millibitcoin |
1⁄1000000 | Microbitcoin |
1⁄100000000 | Satoshi[lower-alpha 2][2] |
Development | |
Original author(s) | Satoshi Nakamoto |
White paper | "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" |
Implementation(s) | Bitcoin Core |
Initial release | 0.1.0 / 9 January 2009 (15 years ago) (2009-01-09) |
Latest release | 25.1 / 19 October 2023 (6 months ago) (2023-10-19)[3] |
Code repository | github |
Development status | Active |
Written in | C++ |
Source model | Free and open-source software |
License | MIT License |
Ledger | |
Ledger start | 3 January 2009 (15 years ago) (2009-01-03) |
Timestamping scheme | Proof of work (partial hash inversion) |
Hash function | SHA-256 (two rounds) |
Issuance schedule | Decentralized (block reward) Initially ₿50 per block, halved every 210,000 blocks |
Block reward | ₿3.125 (as of 2024[update]) |
Block time | 10 minutes |
Circulating supply | ₿19,591,231 (as of 6 January 2024[update]) |
Supply limit | ₿21,000,000[lower-alpha 3] |
Valuation | |
Exchange rate | Floating |
Demographics | |
Official user(s) | El Salvador[4] |
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[update].[10]