Bitcoin

Bitcoin launched in January 2009 after an unknown person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto released the white paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System in October 2008. The first block, known as the genesis block, appeared days later and contained a headline from The Times newspaper that read Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. That reference captured the project’s core idea: create money that operates without banks or governments in control.

The network runs on a proof-of-work system where participants called miners compete to add new blocks roughly every ten minutes. New bitcoins come into existence only through this mining process, and the total supply will never exceed 21 million coins. Rewards for miners halve about every four years in events known as halvings. The first real-world purchase took place in May 2010 when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, a transaction now celebrated each year on Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Over time Bitcoin moved from small online forums to mainstream finance. It survived exchange failures like Mt. Gox in 2014, multiple bans in China, and wild price swings. Today it serves mainly as a store of value that some compare to digital gold. Companies and even a few countries hold it as an asset, and its underlying blockchain continues to process transactions without any central company directing the activity. [edit]