What is Bitcoin?

Introduction

• Bitcoin is a digital currency
• Bitcoin came to life in January 2009
• The creation and transfer of Bitcoin is based on a cryptographic protocol
• All Bitcoin transactions are recorded in a public ledger called the block chain
• Bitcoins are transferred through a peer to peer network
• You can store your Bitcoins in a digital wallet
• Mining is the process by which new Bitcoins are created
• The number of Bitcoin is limited to 21.0 million
• Each Bitcoin has 8 decimals which means that in total there are 2.1 × 10¹⁵ or 2.1 quadrillion currency units
• Until today about 11.5 million Bitcoins have been mined

More about the Bitcoin wallet

• Your Bitcoin wallet is the place where you store your Bitcoins
• Be careful with your wallet - it's where your money is
• You can either have a Bitcoin wallet installed locally on your computer or smartphone - choose one of these
• You can also use an online wallet such as the one from coinbase.com
• There are also ways to create paper wallets but this requires more technological insight. I will post more links here later
• Generally it's good to have your money distributed over more than one place - but don't forget to keep track of where your Bitcoins are!

Advantages of Bitcoin as a currency

• Fast money transfer
• Very low cost money transfer
• Frictionless international money transfer
• No charge-backs
• No double spending
• No money printing possible

Resources

The short list below is a collection of links to the most important Bitcoin websites. You can find a more comprehensive list of Bitcoin knowledge sources under Wiki Bitcoin.

• Official Bitcoin website - this is where you can download your wallet and find further information
• Dedicated Bitcoin wiki - one of the best detailed resources, covers also technical questions
• Bitcoin Foundation - is there to standardize, protect and promote Bitcoin
• bitcoin charts - price information of Bitcoin exchanges all around the world