| Bitcoin is the name of the first One Bitcoin can be exchanged for $$BTC[1]. The future price can't be predicted as the price is based on supply and demand. The supply of bitcoin is currently limited but there is an unlimited supply of cryptocurrencies that can be created. There are currently {BTCCnt} bitcoins in existence of 21,000,000 that will be created by 2140. The number of Bitcoins in existence increases about every 10 minutes by 6.25 Bitcoin contracts "bit," which is the smallest piece of data that computers deal with, and "coin" which is used to denote money. Bits can represent 0 or 1, true or false, yes or no, or numbers. If you string a lot of these bits together you can get very large numbers, which are called binary numbers or base 2. Each time you add a bit you double the number. Bitcoin is:
How do you get Bitcoins?
Address To get bitcoins you must have a bitcoin address which is similar an email address. You give this address to the sender of the bitcoins. This address comes from a random number. You could flip a coin 256 times and write down a 1 for heads or a 0 for tails to get this number also known as your private-key. The number of possible private-keys is 2256 = 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985, 008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564, 039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936. From your private-key you generate your public-key. The public-key is where people send bitcoins to you. You must keep your private-key secret or anyone can transfer your bitcoins wherever they want. These numbers are usually displayed in Transactions When you want to transfer Bitcoins to another person, you need their Bitcoin Address. This is generated from Wallet software. In your wallet software, you enter the number of bitcoins to transfer and the address to send it to. The transaction can take on average 5 minutes to complete if you pay a high enough fee which you set when you send the bitcoins. Transactions can't be reversed. If you send someone your bitcoins they're gone. Unless the recipient sends them back to you. Block All the transactions enter into the bitcoin network are not completed until a miner software, picks up your trade, includes it in the block they're mining and they solve the math problem aka Proof-of-work problem. That block then gets added to all the computers in the networks blockchain. Blockchain The Block-chain is the most important part of Bitcoin. It is a file of information shared and verified by all miners/computers in the Bitcoin network. All transfers of Bitcoins are recorded here. It's also called the Ledger. A new block is created every ten minutes on average and added to the blockchain. This new block is added to the existing blocks to create something like a chain of blocks. It contains a bunch of trades or exchanges of bitcoins. It is created by solving a complex math problem and awarding the computer finding the solution 12.5 bitcoins. There are currently {CurBlock} blocks in the blockchain. Bitcoin Network The bitcoin network consists of thousands of computers that participate in the mining process. The main goal of mining is to keep the Block-chain or ledger of all the trades up to date, correct and not modifiable. Anyone with a computer can join the network by downloading mining software and running it on their computer. Mining Is the process of creating Bitcoins. People who mine for bitcoins will run a software program called a miner. What it does is maintain the correctness of the Bitcoin system and the basis of the system is the Block-chain. There is a lottery that these miners participate in and every 10 minutes the winner gets a prize of 12.5 x {BTCPrice}. This lottery can be gamed by running more and powerful computers to participate in the mining effort. Mining uses a lot of electricity and is really solving a complex math problem that is hard to solve and you have to keep guessing the answer. The mining process is building a file of all exchanges of bitcoins that takes place and making sure there is only one true copy stored on thousands of computers. The name of this file is called the Blockchain. Mining a bitcoin is very difficult because the math problem is very difficult. Mining is a competition of thousands of computers to solve a math problem and the reward goes to the first computer with the correct answer. Hash Hash is a computer program that transforms a lot of data into a much smaller size. So you could take a thousand page book, run a hash on it and come up with a unique number that represents the exact contents of the book. You can't go backward which is to take the output which is just 32 characters and reverse it. Wallet A software program called a wallet is used to keep track of the amount of bitcoin's you own. [1] |