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 Blockchain.info
- 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
- This is the most famous Bitcoin video
