or the oversight of banks or governments. Instead it relies on peer-to-peer software and cryptography.
A public ledger records all bitcoin transactions and copies are held on servers around the world. Anyone with a spare computer can set up one of these servers, known as a node. Consensus on who owns which coins is reached cryptographically across these nodes rather than relying on a central source of trust like a bank.
Every transaction is publicly broadcast to the network and shared from node to node. Every ten minutes or so these transactions are collected together by miners into a group called a block and added permanently to the, virtual currencies are held in digital wallets and can be accessed from client software or a range of online and hardware tools.
In truth there is no such thing as a bitcoin or a wallet, just agreement among the network about ownership of a coin. A private key is used to prove ownership of funds to the network when making a transaction. A person could simply memorise their private key and need nothing else to retrieve or spend their virtual cash, a concept which is known as a “brain wallet”.Bitcoin can be exchanged for cash just like any asset.
Nothing inherently valuable underpins the bitcoin network. But this is true for many of the world’s most stable national currencies sinceBitcoin was created as a way for people to send money over the internet. The digital currency was intended to provide an alternative payment system that would operate free of central control but otherwise be used just like traditional currencies.The cryptography behind bitcoin is based on the SHA-256 algorithm designed by the US National Security Agency.
Sparkes Lol energy consumption and criminality fud. You've got to love 'journalists' who write Mickey Mouse articles about something they 'studied' over a couple of hours.🤦
It is not wrong to use energy. Lots of useful things use energy and lots of people around the world find Bitcoin useful (even if you don’t). Interestingly, we could power the entire Bitcoin network 5 times over with just *wasted* energy from flared gas.
Possibly a slight underestimate and it's a consumption in TWh that is growing fast. Also a lot is in countries that subsidise electricity prices and rely heavily on coal. Worst possible activity as well as Ponzi element. See
$hex and $pulsechain solve this