Bitcoin (BTC)
A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
Asset Summary
- Blockchain: Bitcoin
- Consensus algorithm: Proof-of-Work
- Genesis: 2009-01-03 18:15:05 UTC
- Maximum supply: 21 million
- Decimal: 8
- Explorer: blockchain.com
- Website: bitcoin.org
- Whitepaper: bitcoin.pdf
Project Summary
- Bitcoin (BTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that aims to function as a means of exchange that is independent of any central authority. BTC can be transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable, and immutable way.
- Launched in 2009, BTC is the first virtual currency to solve the double-spending issue by timestamping transactions before broadcasting them to all of the nodes in the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin Protocol offered a solution to the Byzantine Generals' Problem with a blockchain network structure, a notion first created by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991.
- Bitcoin’s whitepaper was published pseudonymously in 2008 by an individual, or a group, with the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”, whose underlying identity has still not been verified.
- The Bitcoin protocol uses an SHA-256d-based Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm to reach network consensus. Its network has a target block time of 10 minutes and a maximum supply of 21 million coins, with a decaying token emission rate. To prevent fluctuation of the block time, the network's block difficulty is re-adjusted through an algorithm based on the past 2016 block times.
- With a block size limit capped at 1 megabyte, the Bitcoin Protocol has supported both the Lightning Network, a second-layer infrastructure for payment channels, and Segregated Witness, a soft-fork to increase the number of transactions on a block, as solutions to network scalability.
- Read more at Binance Research.