Bitcoin
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About Bitcoin
Bitcoin, created in 2008 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. It was built so people could send electronic cash directly to each other, with no bank or government acting in the middle. BTC is the native coin of the Bitcoin blockchain, used to pay transaction fees and transfer value on the network.
Bitcoin works through a peer-to-peer network of computers, each maintaining a copy of the blockchain without central oversight. Cryptography is used to check transactions, which stops someone from spending bitcoin that belongs to another person. Nodes agree on the blockchain's contents by mining, a proof-of-work process that requires heavy computation.
- Launched
- Jan 3, 2009
- Consensus
- Proof of Work (SHA-256)
- Created by
- Satoshi Nakamoto
- Block time
- ~10 minutes
- Category
- Layer 1
- Max supply
- 21.00M BTC
Bitcoin news
All newsBitcoin FAQ
Bitcoin began being used as a currency in 2009, when its open-source implementation was released.
Mining uses the SHA-256 algorithm, and a new block appears about every 10 minutes.
El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and revoked that status in 2025.