Bitcoin for The Trenches

Bitcoin is a 2009 peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Bitcoin is the first open-source digital currency, as it is administered by an open-source software algorithm that creates Bitcoin and records and verifies its transactions using the worldwide Internet network. Bitcoin, as a cryptocurrency, employs cryptographic principles to regulate its generation and trading. To gain access to the Bitcoin network, you must first install Bitcoin software on your computer and then join the Bitcoin network, which allows you to conduct operations and update and validate transactions. The major distinguishing feature of Bitcoin, as opposed to a normal fiat currency like dollars or Euros, is that the quantity of units in circulation is controlled by a software algorithm rather than a person, group, company, central authority, or government. Bitcoin is created in a ‘mining’ process, in which computer network participants, i.e., users who provide their computing power, verify and record payments into a public ledger called a Blockchain.