 Official logo from bitcoin.org | |
| Denominations | |
|---|---|
| Plural | Bitcoins |
| Symbol | ₿ (Unicode: U+20BF ₿ BITCOIN SIGN)[1] |
| Code | BTC |
| Precision | 10−8 |
| Subunits | |
| 1⁄1000 | Millibitcoin |
| 1⁄1000000 | Microbitcoin |
| 1⁄100000000 | Satoshi[a][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 |
| Latest release | 28.0 / 4 October 2024[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 |
| 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[b] |
| Valuation | |
| Exchange rate | Floating |
| Demographics | |
| Official user(s) | El Salvador[4] |
| Website | |
| Website | bitcoin |
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; 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 secures the bitcoin blockchain. Mining consumes large quantities of electricity and has been criticized for its environmental impact.[5]
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] 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]
- ^ "Unicode 10.0.0". Unicode Consortium. 20 June 2017. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ Bradbury, Danny (November 2013). "The problem with Bitcoin". Computer Fraud & Security. 2013 (11): 5–8. doi:10.1016/S1361-3723(13)70101-5. ISSN 1361-3723. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
- ^ "Bitcoin Core 28.0 released". 2 October 2024. Archived from the original on 5 October 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- ^ a b "El Salvador's dangerous gamble on bitcoin". The editorial board. Financial Times. 7 September 2021. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
- ^ Huang, Jon; O’Neill, Claire; Tabuchi, Hiroko (3 September 2021). "Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ S., L. (2 November 2015). "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?". The Economist. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- ^ Davis, Joshua (10 October 2011). "The Crypto-Currency: Bitcoin and its mysterious inventor". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
- ^ Antonopoulos, Andreas M. (2014). Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Crypto-Currencies. O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-1-4493-7404-4.
- ^ Wolff-Mann, Ethan (27 April 2018). "'Only good for drug dealers': More Nobel prize winners snub bitcoin". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
- ^ Sun Yin, Hao Hua; Langenheldt, Klaus; Harlev, Mikkel; Mukkamala, Raghava Rao; Vatrapu, Ravi (2 January 2019). "Regulating Cryptocurrencies: A Supervised Machine Learning Approach to De-Anonymizing the Bitcoin Blockchain". Journal of Management Information Systems. 36 (1): 65. doi:10.1080/07421222.2018.1550550. ISSN 0742-1222. S2CID 132398387. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).