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Essential pointsBitcoin is a digital currency known as a cryptocurrencyThe peer-to-peer technology underpinning it's known as the blockchain a public ledger of transactionsBitcoins can be stored in a digital wallet and used to Purchase other currencies or actual world goods

Where once a single bitcoin was worth a few cents it's now worth about $9,200 per coin (November 2017), creating millionaires in the process.There have been many reported cases where people mined thousands of relatively worthless bitcoins as a hobby years ago, only to now realise they're rich.One IT worker even threw out a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins.

This is done without a central authority or bank.Who generated itBitcoin and also the blockchain technology was made by someone under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto and published as a working beta in 2009. Satoshi's true identity remains a puzzle as he vanished from the scene in 2010 after seemingly handing over the reins into Gavin Andresen, the chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation.Over years numerous individuals have promised to become Satoshi, including Australian computer scientist Craig Wright.

Once the limit is reached, no more bitcoins can be made.However, a single bitcoin can be subdivided as far down as the eighth decimal place (0.00000001BTC) to buy smaller goods using just a fraction of these coin.How do you store or send bitcoinYou can shop and send bitcoins via an encrypted digital wallet, which is run as an app on your computer.The wallet functions using two keys a private key and a public key which seem to be a seemingly random string of numbers and letters.The private key is kept confidential by you and functions as a password that unlocks the wallet and allows you to send any bitcoins connected with it.

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If the web site gets hacked or someone gets your login details that they could get and drain your funds from the exchange.There is no way for a transaction to be reversed or recovered if a thief sends your bitcoins to their wallet.After buying your coins you should transfer them into a secure digital wallet created by you and not hosted online.You can even write down the wallet's private key on a sheet of paper (this is known as a newspaper wallet) and stick it in a safe.If you don't save the personal key on your computer or online then hackers can never break in and access your funds.

Bitcoin means different things to different people. For some, it's a future of moving currency untied to any central bank. To others, it's a purely digital entity of questionable value and dubious origin. But what is Bitcoin, in the most basic senseIn most casual conversations, you can eliminate knowing that bitcoin is, essentially, an electronic currency.

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In reality, it is two considerably more complex things.Bitcoin has been with us since 2009, when a person (or group) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto introduced a platform (Bitcoin, uppercase) that hosts an electronic currency (bitcoin, lowercase). Bitcoin the stage is built on the concept of evidence of work information which is expensive and time-intensive to produce but can be easily verified.

To mine a bitcoin, a computer has to finish a complicated algorithm, essentially going through the job of an extensive calculation in exchange for a few newly minted currency. That bit of electronic currency is worth whatever the market determines through distribution and demand.Transactions are connected to some users Bitcoin address, which is stored on its general ledger, called the blockchain.

This relative anonymity makes the system appealing for things such as incognito purchases within the internet.A key component of Bitcoins blockchain is the fact it is an open, distributed ledger. Throughout the distributed nature of this ledger, the transactions on the blockchain are confirmed from the consensus of every member, offering security and trust without a third-party overseer.One of the most important things to bear in mind when thinking my response about exactly what Bitcoin (or even bitcoin) is: there is no single answer.