Bitcoin (BTC). What should you know about it? Which Bitcoin wallet to choose? Bitcoin (BTC) mining, description, history and prices of the cryptocurrency

From the article you will learn:

• What is Bitcoin?
• How was Bitcoin created? (Bitcoin history)
• How to mine Bitcoin?
• Which Bitcoin BTC wallet to choose?
• Bitcoin BTC Price

King there is only one

Bitcoin (BTC) is an open source decentralized payment method based on blockchain technology with its own cryptocurrency, created by an anonymous programmer (or group of people) named Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency in history, which is also a pioneering network that uses a distributed network of blocks. The bitcoin network was launched on January 3, 2009. The idea behind the creation of the first cryptocurrency was to create digital money that did not have the inherent drawbacks of fiat currencies. Bitcoin aims to be completely independent from the influence of governments and private companies, and to ensure that transactions can be carried out without the presence of trusted intermediaries. BTC transactions are virtually impossible to censor, reverse, or block. The bitcoin network, based on the work of miners who perform power-intensive calculations using dedicated hardware, and the limited maximum supply are to prevent the issuance of uncovered units and inflation.

The bitcoin network is completely public, the transactions carried out in it are pseudo-anonymous, because the wallet balances and the transaction processes are public, and each user can download and synchronize the entire history of the BTC network from continuously, becoming the so-called full node.

The maximum bitcoin supply has been set at 21 million BTC units, which means it is deflationary. Currently, there are more than 17.4 billion units in circulation on the market (more than 80%) and, according to estimates, all units will be mined by 2140. So, the miners who keep the network running will live only on fees. user transaction

What are cryptocurrencies?

The history of Bitcoin (BTC)

The creator of the bitcoin source code is an anonymous programmer (or group of people) named Satoshi Nakamoto. He started working on more than 31,000 lines of BTC repository code written in the C++ programming language as early as 2007, when the specter of the next global economic crisis hung over the world economy. The bitcoin white paper was published on October 31, 2008, and the first genesis block number 0 was mined on January 3, 2009, which is considered the official start of the first cryptocurrency network. The genesis block coinbase parameter included the now legendary front page headline of The Times: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”, reporting plans for further attempts to bail out failing banks.

Satoshi made the BTC source code public on January 8, 2009 and made the first transaction on January 12 – he sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney, a well-known cryptographer and programmer, who died in 2014.

The first transaction to buy a product using bitcoin, and therefore cryptocurrencies in general, is considered to be the purchase of two pizzas for 10,000. BTC, made by programmer Laszlo Haynecz on May 22, 2010. Every year the anniversary of this event is celebrated, called Bitcoin Pizza Day.

It is worth noting that Nakamoto was not only the creator of BTC, but also the originator of the concept of a decentralized blockchain network, considered by many to be more important than bitcoin itself. The vast majority of the first altcoins were created on the basis of the open source code of bitcoin, some of which occupy a leading position in the market (for example, Litecoin, Dash).

Before the price of Bitcoin broke $20,000, before the National Bank of Poland and the Polish Financial Supervisory Authority started warning against investing in cryptocurrencies, before the CBOE and CME exchanges launched futures contracts on Bitcoin, before the banking contracts for economic entities that trade with cryptocurrencies began to be terminated.

Before Bitcoin became famous

Bitcoin (BTC) mining

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency based on the Proof of Work consensus algorithm that uses the SHA256 hash function, which means that miners are responsible for maintaining network stability, confirming transactions, creating blocks of subsequent transactions, and mining new BTC units.

The bitcoin mining difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks (approximately 2 weeks) based on the average block time, which is ultimately expected to be 10 minutes. If the miners managed to mine blocks in an average time of less than 10 minutes, the mining difficulty will increase. Similarly, it will decrease when the average time to mine a block exceeds the 10 minute target. The mining time of a block, and at the same time the difficulty, is affected by the general computing power of the BTC network (hashrate) generated by the diggers and expressed in (tera) hashes per second (H/s).

In the early days of BTC, the computing power of the network and the difficulty of mining were so low that bitcoin mining was possible with the use of processors (CPUs) in consumer computers and laptops. As early as 2011, BTC mining started using GPUs (graphics cards), which were much more efficient. In 2012, the first specialized ASICs began to be created, designed exclusively to solve the SHA256 hash function used in bitcoin. For more than two years, only ASIC mining has been effective. Also, due to the increasing difficulty of mining, all older and less powerful ASIC miners are currently useless.

BTC can be mined using miners like Bitmain AntMiner S15/T15, Innosilicon Terminator T3 or DragonMint T1

The bitcoin block reward was initially 50 BTC, halving every 210,000. blocks Currently, it is 12.5 BTC (after two halvings), and its next reduction (to 6.25 BTC) will take place at the end of May 2020.

Transaction fees on the BTC network are dynamic and depend on the size of the transaction, counted in bytes: the transaction cost is set in satoshi (0.00000001 BTC) per byte. Users can choose any transaction fee amount. Miners first select transactions with higher fees, which means that miners can never include transactions with a very low fee in the transaction block.

From the beginning, Bitcoin had a target transaction block time of 10 minutes and its maximum capacity of 1 MB, which implied a relatively low network performance of about 7 transactions per second (TPS), completely excluding BTC as a widely used means of payment. . Although apparently little has changed since the creation of bitcoin in terms of scalability, one of the defining moments can be considered the network update (soft-fork) of August 23, 2017, which introduced SegWit. The upgrade not only allowed for a noticeable reduction in transaction fees, increased network capacity, but also paved the way for many major implementations that will drastically increase the scalability of BTC in the future. It is worth mentioning above all the second layer protocol called the Lightning Network, which allows you to make an almost unlimited number of transactions per second using payment channels outside the BTC blockchain (so-called off-chain transactions), with a Virtually instant execution time. and minimal transaction fees. A major update that awaits bitcoin in the future will also be the implementation of Schnorr signatures, which will allow the network to be relieved with a more orderly and cheaper structure of cryptographic signatures, which will translate into lower transaction fees. .

Which wallet (wallet) for bitcoin (BTC)?

Bitcoin is the most widely supported cryptocurrency and undoubtedly has the largest selection of wallets for various operating systems and devices. The basic full node desktop wallet (download and sync of the entire history of the blockchain network) is Bitcoin Core, available for Windows, MacOS and Linux operating systems. A popular dexstop light wallet is Electrum BTC, also available for the most popular operating systems (and for Android in the mobile version). The most popular multi-wallets (supporting more than one cryptocurrency) for BTC are Jaxx and Exodus. The most recommended mobile wallet for bitcoin is Samourai Wallet, currently only available for Android devices. Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet and Blockchain Wallet (not recommended on the web version), both available on Android and iOS (Apple), are also very popular. Notable mobile multi-wallets include: Jaxx, Coinomi, and Trust Wallet.

Bitcoin is compatible with all hardware wallets currently available on the market, such as e.g. Ledger (Nano S, Blue), Trezor (Model T, One), KeepKey.

Check the current rate of Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin (BTC) price and quotes

Bitcoin, as the leading and most capitalized cryptocurrency, which is the base currency pair for most altcoins, is listed on the largest number of cryptocurrency exchanges, currently over a hundred trading platforms. This also makes BTC the most distributed digital currency of all. The largest BTC trading volume is accumulated on the BitMex futures exchange (approximately 10% of total turnover). On average, around 5% of all BTC turnover comes from the largest cryptocurrency exchanges such as OKEx and Binance, most of which along with Tether (BTC/USDT). Bitcoin to Polish Zloty (BTC/PLN) can be bought e.g. on BitBay, Exmo, Coinroom, BitMarket and Coindeal exchanges.

The first BTC trading hub was the New Liberty Standard website, which on October 9, 2009 published the first BTC/USD exchange rate, which was 1,309 BTC to one dollar (estimated based on cost and difficulty of trading). mining). On February 9, 2011, bitcoin prices reached the USD 1 level, and on June 3, 2011, they exceeded USD 10 for the first time. Ten times this rate ($100) had to wait until April 1, 2013, and the first thousand dollars was reached on January 3, 2017. On November 29, 2017, less than a month before the price peak, BTC it crossed the 10,000 mark for the first time.

The previous peak of Bitcoin (ATH) was set on December 17, 2017 with a price above 20,000. USD and a market capitalization of more than USD 325 billion. Since the beginning of its existence, bitcoin has been in the first position in the capitalization ranking. The potential situation where another cryptocurrency manages to outperform BTC's market value is colloquially known as "flippening."