What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, global network, without a central authority, open to everyone 24/7, transparent, and resistant to censorship. It can serve as a payment network, price of bitcoin store of value, and to a lesser extent a data storage solution
At the start: the Bitcoin IT protocol
Bitcoin with a capital “B” is open-source computer software, freely consultable and accessible by all, created in 2008. This name is a pseudonym; the identity of the creator remains unknown to this day.
Any computer scientist can analyze the price of bitcoin code, make sure it doesn’t contain flaws or backdoors or even suggest improvements. Hundreds of programmers contribute daily to its evolution and tools to interact with it.
Bitcoin blockchain
Bitcoin always with a capital “B” is also a register, called the Bitcoin blockchain, whose role is to store all transactions or information that takes place on the network. This registry has two basic peculiarities: it is distributed, that is, to say that thousands of copies synchronized via a peer-to-peer computer network exist worldwide, and it is immutable, which means that no data stored on the Bitcoin blockchain cannot be altered or deleted. A transaction validation mechanism called Proof of Work is defined in the program to validate transactions awaiting addition to the blockchain and guarantee their immutability. It remunerates the actors who devote computing power to it via monetary creation. We are talking about the mining process. These two characteristics of the blockchain give it extreme robustness in the face of computer attacks and censorship attempts.
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