Bitcoin is a form of digital
currency, created and held electronically. No one controls it.
Bitcoins aren’t
printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by people, and increasingly
businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves
mathematical problems.
Bitcoin can be used to buy things electronically. In that sense, it’s like
conventional dollars, euros, or yen, which are also traded digitally.
However, bitcoin’s most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it
different to conventional money, is that it is decentralized.
No single institution controls the bitcoin network. This puts some people at
ease, because it means that a large bank can’t control their money.
A software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin, which was an
electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce
a currency independent of any central authority, transferable electronically,
more or less instantly, with very low transaction fees.
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