What is Bitcoin. Explanation for cryptocurrency newbies

Bitcoin is the first and most well-known cryptocurrency in the world that relies on the technology of the same name, created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, pseudonym of an anonymous inventor on whose identity there are still no certainties.

At its inception, the rate set the value of one dollar for 1309 BTC, with time it then reached record values ​​of 20,000 dollars per bitcoin, finally stabilizing around 6000 dollars per current bitcoin. Basically, bitcoins understood as digital currency, are nothing more than files that everyone can have in their private digital wallet, placed on their PC or on more complex systems similar to those of traditional banks.

The creation, possession and transfer of bitcoins between Internet users are regulated by the Blockchain, a public and shared technology based on opensource software. The global network used for transactions is, instead, built on the model of logical peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture.

What changes compared to FIAT

This means that, unlike traditional currencies that refer to a central body, Bitcoin relies on a distributed database, a network whose nodes are "equal", ie they act as clients and servers for all other nodes at the same time. .

Anyone with Internet access can join the system and occupy one or more nodes on the network. The transfer of bitcoins between two users is free from any third party authorization or from the intervention of central institutions and takes place, in practice, by unlocking and modifying the content of the nodes concerned through two Keys, one public and the other private, owned by individual users.

The private key is one of the two steps on which Bitcoin security is based, the second of these consists in checking the previous inputs which is aimed at verifying that the user actually owns the sum to support the transaction.

Is this a safe currency?

Currently the security protocol still presents some problems in the case of multiple and instantaneous transactions that start from the same node. Bitcoin packets are saved in the form of addresses, i.e. random sequences of letters and digits that are on average 33 characters long. Each address is totally anonymous and does not hold any type of information on its owner.

The giants of the world economy are investing time and resources today to further implement the Bitcoin system in particular and the Blockchain in general, and to gain pole position in the future of payment management. Cryptocurrencies and everything that follows are among us and are here to stay. Why, then, are some of us still skeptical about whether Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general can be useful or not, when in reality they not only work, but are already changing the world from the inside? It is the natural reaction to the new!

The same thing has happened countless times in history, one of the last when the Internet was introduced, and for more than a decade it has been discussed with suspicion and fear. And now we are close to the moment when Bitcoin is also moving from the trend / spam folder to the ROM folder, where things are already clear and do not require much attention.