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Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or a single administrator. The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place directly between users, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes through the use of cryptography and recorded in a distributed public ledger called blockchain.
Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products and services. As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and sellers have accepted bitcoins as payment.
The research produced by the University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017 there are 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users who use a portfolio of cryptocurrencies, most of them use bitcoins. The word bitcoin has first been verified and was defined in the white paper published October 31, 2008.
It is a compound of the words bit and coin. The white card often uses the shorter currency. There is no uniform convention for bitcoin capitalization.
On 18 August 2008 the domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered. In November of that year, a link to a document written by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin. A peer-to-peer electronic payment system was published.
Nakamoto implemented bitcoin software as open source code and released it on SourceForge in January 2009. The identity of Nakamoto remains unknown. In January 2009, the bitcoin network was born after Satoshi Nakamoto extracted the first block of the chain, known as the genesis block. In the coinbase of this block the following text was incorporated:
The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on the edge of the second bailout for banks
This note has been interpreted both as a timestamp of the date of genesis and as a derisive comment on the instability caused by fractional reserve banking.
One of the first bitcoin supporters, adopters and contributors was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, the programmer Hal Finney. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day he was released and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the first bitcoin transaction in the world. Other early supporters were Wei Dai, creator of the b-money predecessor bitcoin, and Nick Szabo, creator of the bit gold predecessor bit gold.
In the early days, it is estimated that Nakamoto extracted 1 million bitcoins. In 2010, Nakamoto delivered the network warning key and control of the Bitcoin Core code repository to Gavin Andresen, who later became lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation. Nakamoto subsequently disappeared from any involvement in bitcoins. Andresen stated that he then tried to decentralize control by saying:
"So, if you were hit by a bus, it would be clear that the project would go on"
This has left the opportunity to develop controversy on the future path of bitcoin development. The value of the first bitcoin transactions was negotiated by individual users in the bitcointalk forums with a substantial transaction of 10,000 BTC used to indirectly buy two pizzas delivered by Pope John & # 39; s.
