Bitcoins have become a very well known and popular form of currency over time. Though, what exactly is Bitcoin? The following article will go over the in’s and out’s of this currency that popped up out of no where and spread like a wildfire. What makes it different from normal currencies?

Bitcoin is a digital currency, it is not printed and never will be. They are held electronically and nobody has control over it either. Their produced by people and businesses, creating the first ever form of money known as cryptocurrency. While normal currencies are seen in the real world, Bitcoin runs through billions of computers all around the world. From Bitcoin in the United States to Bitcoin in India, it has become a global currency. However the biggest distinction it has from other currencies, is that it is decentralized. This means that no specific company or bank owns it.

Who created it?

Satoshi Nakamoto, a software developer, proposed and created Bitcoin. He saw it as a chance to have a new currency on the market free from central authority.

Who prints it?

As mentioned earlier, the simple answer is nobody. Bitcoin is not a printed currency, it is a digital one. You can even make transactions online using Bitcoins. So you can’t churn out unlimited Bitcoins? Absolutely not, Bitcoin is designed to never “mine” more than 21 million Bitcoins into the world at one time. Though they can be broken up into smaller amounts. One hundred millionth of a Bitcoin is called a “Satoshi”, after its creator.

What is Bitcoin based on?

For appearances mostly and conventional use, Bitcoin is based on gold and silver. However, the truth is that Bitcoin is actually based on pure mathematics. It has nothing to hide either as it’s an open source. So anyone can look into it to see if it’s running the way they claim.

What are Bitcoin’s characteristics?

1. As mentioned earlier, it is decentralized. It is not owned by any specific company or bank. Every software that mines the Bitcoins make up a network, and they work together. The theory was, and it worked, that if one network goes down, the money still flows.

2. It’s easy to set up. You can set up a Bitcoin account in seconds, unlike the big banks.

3. It’s anonymous, at least the part that your Bitcoin addresses are not linked to any sort of personal information.

4. It’s completely transparent, all of the transactions using Bitcoins are shown on a large chart, known as the blockchain, but nobody knows it’s you as no names are connected to it.

5. Transaction fees are minuscule, and compared to a bank’s fees, the rare and small fees Bitcoin charges are close to nothing. It’s fast, very fast. Anywhere you send money too, it generally will arrive in minutes after processing.g. It’s non-repudiable, meaning once you send your Bitcoins away, they’re gone forever.

Bitcoin has vastly changed the world and how we see money. Many people are left wondering if it’s possible to live off of Bitcoins. Some have even tried to do so. Even so, Bitcoin is a part of our economy now, a unique kind of currency, and it isn’t going to go away anytime soon.