Bitcoin (BTC)

General Data and Information. The theory behind Bitcoin was first described by Satoshi Nakomoto in a paper “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”published to a cryptographic mailing list on the 31st of October 2008. In this paper, Satoshi described the protocol (Proof of Work) that would solve the “double-spend”problem inherent in non-physical (digital) forms of currency. The first or Genesis block was mined by Satoshi on the 3rd of January 2009, with the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” written into the coinbase of the block to act both as a timestamp and a rebuke to the economic instability caused by the widespread practice of fractional reserve banking. The total supply of Bitcoins is capped at 21 million coins (roughly 18 million are currently in circulation), with each coin being divisible to the 8th decimal place, with a single unit of the smallest division (0.00000001 BTC) being known colloquially as a Satoshi (or sat). The software to run miners and wallets is open source and decentralized, meaning that the network is accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Transactions are validated and written into the blockchain by miners selected via the Proof of Work (SHA-256) protocol. The difficulty of the Proof of Work algorithm is adjusted every 2016 blocks (roughly 2 weeks) to maintain an average block time of roughly 10 minutes. New Bitcoins are created (minted) as a reward to the miner that mined the valid block, with the reward currently sitting at 12.5 Bitcoins per block. This block reward is halved every 210,000 blocks (roughly 4 years) until it reaches zero. This block reward serves as an economic incentive for the miners to continue securing the Bitcoin network

Milestones. 31st October 2008 - White paper released by Satoshi Nakomoto. 3rd January 2009 - Genesis block mined by Satoshi Nakomoto. 12th January 2009 -First transaction using Bitcoin; Satoshi Nakomoto sends 100 BTC to Hal Finney. 22nd May 2010 - First recorded commercial transaction using Bitcoin; aka Pizza Day. 14th January 2016 - Lightning Network white paper, a Layer-2 solution to scaling Bitcoin. 1st August 2017 - Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork. 23rd August 2017 - Segregated Witness (SegWit) implemented. Utility. As the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin maintains the largest market capitalization and liquidity making it the “reserve” currency against which all other crypto-currencies trade against. This means that crypto exchanges are obliged to offer BTC trading pairs ahead of any other pairing.This reserve status combined with the widespread availability of trading pairs gives Bitcoin a special status as a store of value in the crypto-currency ecosystem; trading between two alternative cryptocurrencies will often require Bitcoin as a bridge currency to facilitate the exchange. In addition, the widespread brand recognition of Bitcoin makes it is the first port of call for most newcomers to the crypto-currency space and it’s name is often considered by the wider public to be synonymous with the entire crypto-currency ecosystem. Although the acceptance of Bitcoin by vendors in the developed nations is not on the level of established fiat currencies, Bitcoin is finding more traction in developing countries where the existing fiat currencies are not able to properly function as stores of value over time

Significant Features. - Decentralized access allowing any party with the open-source software and internet access to send and receive Bitcoin irreversibly without third party interference or trust. - Decentralized governance via open-source development and forking. - Relatively slow block times in comparison to other crypto-currencies although there are solutions in development such as the Lightning Network aiming to solve the problem of scaling. - Largest hashrate (ensuring the security and resilience of the blockchain) and largest liquidity. - Most common currency for crypto-currency exchange pairing. - The hard coded scarcity (maximum 21 million coins) has led to comparisons to traditional physical scarce resources like gold. - Transactions are pseduo-anonymous. Funds are sent address to address, but an owner identity can eventually attributed to an address given enough data and analysis. - Average blocktime of 10 minutes; Total supply of 21 million BTC; Consensus via Proof of Work (SHA-256). References: .

Most newspapers and -sites reduced the amount of reporting about Bitcoin after the huge “bull run” in January 2018. Bitcoins current market capitalization is around 50% of all the cryptocurrencies available.
Bitcoin is getting accepted by more and more merchants. Ohio became the first state (November 2018) where people can pay their taxes with Bitcoin. [1]

4.5

The early Bitcoin community was tech savvy and many developers are still working on the Bitcoin core code with only a limited number of developers being able to push directly to the source code. Lead developer right now is Wladimir J. van der Laan (laanwj) who has been nominated by the last leader in 2011. [1]

4.5

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency as a peer-to-peer version of an electronic payment method. Bitcoins goal is to provide a solution to transfer electronic money online with high transaction speed for people around the globe. This is already possible today through financial institutions or PayPal, but Bitcoins solution would make these third-party institutions obsolete and thus saving the user money. [1]

4.9

At the time of this writing, 350 million transactions have been processed by the Bitcoin network since 2009. Transaction times are measured on the order of seconds. Current limit is around 7 transactions per second. [1]

4.0

Bitcoin was developed by a person/group named Satoshi Nakamoto, hence the smallest transferable value 0,00000001 Bitcoin (seven zeros after the comma) is called 1 Satoshi. No one knows who the real Satoshi Nakamoto is. Lead developer right now is Wladimir J. van der Laan (laanwj). Van der Laan has a good reputation among the Bitcoin community and he was well trusted by the previous lead developer Gavin Andresen. Van der Laan doesn’t have any other designated projects. [1] [2]

4.0

There will likely be a global digital payment system and it might be a cryptocurrency. We can’t be sure whether it will be a blockchain coin or a directed acyclic graph coin (or even a new coin based on new technology). Bitcoin would need to solve some massive problems to become an efficient global currency. One is that of the limited transactions per second and another one is the high energy consumption. Bitcoin still might be the future gold of cryptocurrencies.

4.5

Bitcoins purpose isn’t just sending money. Many new projects are being researched and some of them are in development right now. The transaction history is transparent. There could potentially be voting systems with Bitcoin or possibilities for crowdfunding campaigns.

4.5

Bitcoins potential is huge. If the Bitcoin team can solve problems like scalability and speed, then we might possibly find Bitcoin as the centre of all digital payments. With that even more merchants would accept Bitcoin and we could possibly see ourselves buying groceries with Bitcoin in a few years.

4.8

The goal for many coins is to become the global digital payment system before Bitcoin. Key points are reputation for the coin, transaction speed, limit of transactions per second (TPS), pseudonymity and the price for fees. Some cryptocurrency teams are working hard for their projects to pass these points. (Monero for true anonymity, Dash for speed, Nano for feeless transactions and speed).

3.5

Bitcoin doesn’t have official partners, but whenever cryptocurrencies are accepted Bitcoin is among them. Many merchants are accepting Bitcoin. You can deposit your Bitcoin on a Microsoft Account [1] or use Bitcoin to book a hotel with Expedia. [2]

4.5

The Bitcoin community is strong and very active. Many people that trade Altcoins hold Bitcoin too or trade BTC/Altcoin. Many people support Bitcoin as was is the first developed cryptocurrency.

4.8

Satoshi Nakamoto is the synonym for the person or group that invented Bitcoin. No one knows who the real Satoshi Nakamoto is. The current lead developer is Wladimir J. van der Laan (laanwj) who got the role in 2014. [1]

4.0