About Bitcoin
Created by an individual or a group of individuals identified by the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”, Bitcoin is the world’s first cryptocurrency. It was launched in 2009 and is based on the technology — blockchain. Bitcoin is essentially a digital currency that works on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. The network isn’t controlled by any central authority or banking institution and Bitcoin transactions are completely transparent. The number of Bitcoins that can ever exist is limited to 21 million. New Bitcoins are created through a process called ‘mining’ which involves the use of computing power to approve transactions in the Bitcoin network. The cryptocurrency can either be mined or purchased from a cryptocurrency exchange.
Each Bitcoin can be further divided into 100,000,000 units or satoshis — which is the smallest unit of the coin — making it possible for users to acquire even a fraction of a Bitcoin. Based on the blockchain technology, Bitcoin uses a proof-of-work model to reward miners. Miners use special computers/equipment to discover new blocks where transactions are added and in return, the system rewards them with a fixed number of Bitcoins for their work. New blocks are added to the blockchain in a chronological order, making it impossible to reverse or alter a transaction. This ensures the immutability of the Bitcoin ledger. Since its launch, the number of Bitcoins rewarded to miners is halved every 210,000 blocks or approximately every four years.
The success of Bitcoin and its open-source nature has inspired the creation of several other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, etc. As of 2021, there are around 6000 cryptocurrencies operating around the world. Despite initial scepticism about its applicability in the mainstream economy, eventually, with the rising number of users, Bitcoin has gained much acceptance and is being accepted for payments by major companies like Microsoft and Tesla. Bitcoin is traded in cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance, and its price keeps fluctuating from time to time. Starting with a price of $0.0008 in 2010, the price of a single Bitcoin even reached an all time high of $64,000 in April 2021 after Tesla announced that it had acquired $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and Coinbase — the largest crypto exchange in the U.S.– launched its IPO.
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