What is Bitcoin (BTC)

What is Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin is both a currency and a digital system. As a currency it can be used for everything that any currency serves, but instead of having a government entity - such as a central bank - that issues and supports it, it is based entirely on the digital system that was devised by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto , who spread it with his white paper on a specialized Internet forum. As a consequence, one of the most outstanding features of Bitcoin is that it does not belong to any country or government; and since its creator is anonymous and decided that his invention was free license, it does not belong to any individual or private company. Those who keep their platform running are the users themselves.

Bitcoin cryptocurrency digital currency

Bitcoin is a currency: as is the dollar, the euro, the yen or any other local currency that you can think of. Its uses are exactly the same. What makes a big difference with the so-called fiat currencies (those issued and backed by a central bank) is that it does not exist physically.

 It is a digital currency that only exists in the blockchain or blockchain that supports it and due to a sophisticated transaction verification process (consensus), it cannot be spent twice. Each bitcoin - or portion of it - is unique, as each transaction is recorded publicly (although without personal data) in a large digital “book” of accounting made with complex cryptographic structures, called blockchain or blockchain. That is why bitcoin is called ‘cryptocurrency’ and is only the first of its kind.

Users can manage their funds with digital wallets that have both a public key (equivalent to a bank account number) and a private key (equivalent to the bank account password). With both, it is possible to carry out financial transactions from anywhere in the world and at all times, so that, in addition, it is a currency that does not have territorial ties, as does fiat money. In the same way as any other currency, it is possible to exchange it for local money, for which there are exchange houses or platforms such as LocalBitcoins, which work throughout the world.

It is abbreviated as BTC, and while the platform in its entirety is written with capital B, "bitcoin" in lowercase refers only to the units of the currency.

Bitcoin is a digital system: in addition to being a currency, Bitcoin has a very important value as a digital system, as it is the first existing blockchain. Distributed accounting technology is an encrypted database where any information can be stored, from every bitcoin spent to computer programs such as smart contracts. Its value lies in the fact that each data registered - and protected with a powerful cryptographic system - is marked with a unique fingerprint that makes it unrepeatable and immutable; So, beyond Bitcoin, this technology is under development in multiple applications by hundreds of very important companies across the globe.



Bitcoin is decentralized: the revolution that brings bitcoin with respect to the currencies and payment methods already in place is that it eliminates the need for trust in central entities in order to sustain the economy. Right now, money is controlled by governments and banks around the world: they are responsible for issuing, distributing, regulating and, for example, ensuring that a transaction between two strangers does not result in fraud. They, as intermediaries, are necessary to validate the economic process.


Bitcoin, on the other hand, relies on its own code to provide this trust. The blockchain is a cryptographic system that allows you to store and transfer any digitized asset between two or more people directly, since everything is registered online, where anyone can see that the funds exist and really moved from one direction to another. In this way, the strict control of the banks is eliminated, which can even freeze the accounts of their clients, and the high commissions they charge, as Bitcoin was designed to charge a small or no commission.