Bitcoin (BTC): What is it?
Bitcoin by Crypto Nation – 10 July 2021
By Crypto Nation – 10 juillet 2021
Bitcoin crypto card summary:
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Bitcoin Fundamentals
- Name: Bitcoin
- Symbol: BTC
- Type: Blockchain, Payment
- Consensus: Proof Of Work (PoW)
- Year of creation: 2008 (study), 2009 (launch)
- Founder(s): Unknown – Under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”
- Official website: https://bitcoin.org/
- Mainnet: Yes – https://www.blockchain.com/explorer
- Whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- Code: https://github.com/bitcoin/
- Twitter: @Bitcoin
Bitcoin market data
Below are the basic market informations regarding this cryptocurrency:
- Price: It is expressed in dollars ($). There is also its percentage change (%) over the last 24 hours.
- Rank: Ranking of this cryptocurrency among all those referenced on CoinMarketCap. This is done according to the market cap.
- Market cap: Market capitalization represents the total dollar ($) value of all coins in circulation.
- Volume: It represents the total dollar ($) amount of the cryptocurrency in question traded over the last 24 hours.
What is the goal of the Bitcoin project ?
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency. When it was created, it promised to be a technological and financial revolution, which opens the doors to an alternative to the existing monetary system.
It can be seen as a way to hedge against the inevitable inflation of our economy and therefore plays a role of safe haven. Some call it digital gold, or gold 2.0.
At the beginning, the will of its unknown creator was to modify the processes of world monetary exchanges and more precisely, to combine transparency and security, through the decentralization and the anonymity of the users.
Its exact goal was: “For online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without having to go through a financial institution”.
That’s why the Bitcoin was created and developed on the first real blockchain in the world.
If you want more information, we are already exposing Bitcoin and the concept of cryptocurrency on our page “What is Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency?“.
The origin of the project
We do not know who is behind Satoshi Nakamoto, one or more people ? Yet it was he who wrote the Bitcoin white paper on October 31, 2008.
Two months later, on January 3, 2009, Mr. Nakamoto mined the first block of the network, the genesis block, and then truly gave birth to the world’s first cryptocurrency, as well as the beginning of “blockchain” networks.
The December 12, 2010 marks the last intervention by Satoshi Nakamoto on the famous forum Bitcointalk before disappearing… Passing the torch to Gavin Andresen.
Gavin is the head of the Bitcoin Foundation created in 2012. Big names in the world of new technologies quickly supported the project.
Nakamoto remains the true creator of Bitcoin and the author of its first application, but many people have since contributed to the improvement of this cryptocurrency, by fixing vulnerabilities and adding new features . There are over 750 Bitcoin source code contributors on GitHub.
What is its use?
The BTC does not have many uses within its network but it is capital. It is simply there to secure the Bitcoin network.
It also acts as a “gas” on the blockchain, thus making it possible to pay transaction fees.
Beyond the technical aspects, Bitcoin is essential to the crypto ecosystem, as it carries the values and concept of almost the entire cryptocurrency market:
Send and receive money from anyone, anywhere, without having to go through intermediaries.
It should also be understood that a very large number of cryptocurrencies have a quotation, a value, compared to Bitcoin itself. Cryptos other than Bitcoin, called altcoins, therefore often have a value/price in BTC and USDT (current main stablecoin).
Management of the economy (as of 06/11/2023)
We are (approximately) in 2140… that’s it, the 21-st million, of all the Bitcoins, has just been mined!
As its creator had programmed 130 years before, there will not be one more, it is defined by the source code of Bitcoin.
Knowing the law of supply and demand, it becomes logical to understand the constant rise in the price of Bitcoin since its inception, although very volatile.
Currently, around 19.5 million tokens are in circulation, or more than 93%.
Note that approximately every 4 years there is an event called Halving Day. This day marks the division by 2 of the rewards attributed to minors, thus making new Bitcoins slower to produce.
In the early years, many Bitcoins were produced every day. But over time, they become more and more complicated to create, all of this being controlled and regulated by its algorithm.
So you understand how it is possible to take even more than 100 years to produce less than 15% more Bitcoins.
Finally, each Bitcoin is divisible into 100,000,000 individual units.
As a tribute to its creator, the community decided to call the smaller Bitcoin unit “Satoshi”. So remember that 1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has not been pre-mined, meaning that no tokens were created and / or distributed to founders before being publicly launched.
But it should still be borne in mind that during the first years of BTC’s existence, competition between minors was relatively low.
This allowed the first participants of the network to accumulate large sums of BTC.
It is assumed that Satoshi Nakamoto alone would hold over a million Bitcoins.
Diagram of the evolution of the cryptoactive
Where to store your cryptocurrency
If you prefer to take your cryptocurrencies out of centralized exchanges, you can store your Bitcoin ($ BTC) via various solutions :
- Atomic Wallet, a software wallet or in the form of a mobile application, very complete and secure.
- Trust Wallet, bought by Binance, it has become the benchmark mobile wallet.
- Ledger, very secure wallet hardwares, the best known being the Ledger Nano S.
More details on the different types of cryptocurrency wallets on our dedicated page, accessible by clicking here.
Our opinion on this project
How not to have a more than positive opinion towards the first of cryptocurrencies, the one that started everything and which opens the way to a more internal system by bringing transparency and real security to its users?
Bitcoin is a global community, tight-knit and without differences. It is the genesis of an unprecedented sector of activity and it is moreover thanks to its creation that we are writing these lines.
He is the pioneer of blockchains, technology of the future, which continues to seduce.
A leader, still at the top of a market where competition is fierce, after more than ten years of existence. Bitcoin shows its strength, its resilience, its omnipotence. Despite its aging technology, it continues to dominate an ecosystem that is constantly innovating, as it is the inspiration and the main indicator of the health of this market. The cryptosphere therefore has everything to gain as long as the Bitcoin King is doing well.
Coming back to its technically outdated aspect, it should be kept in mind that Bitcoin is completely open source and that thousands of developers can work on it and contribute to its improvement. Thus, to respond to its main problem, its scalability, the Lightning Network is gradually starting to enter the scene, in order to provide the BTC network with instant transactions at a lower cost.
The important thing with Bitcoin is its values and fundamentals, which will remain unchanged forever. Limited quantity, monetary autonomy, freedom, no trusted third party, no border, secure, resistant to censorship, protects privacy and acts as a store of value.
Bitcoin is a revolution, which is only at the beginning of its real impact.
