What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is money that lives on the internet and is run by its users, not by a bank, a company or a government. It started in January 2009, a few months after a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a nine page paper on 31 October 2008. You can read the whitepaper here, exactly as it was written.

Every payment is recorded on a shared public record called the blockchain. Thousands of computers around the world keep a copy and check every new entry against the rules. Nobody can quietly edit the record or print extra coins, because everyone else would reject it.

New entries are added in blocks, roughly every ten minutes, by miners. Miners spend real electricity to win the right to add the next block, and they are paid in new bitcoin plus fees. That cost is what makes cheating far more expensive than playing fair.

One bitcoin splits into 100 million smaller units called sats, so you never need to buy a whole one. Plenty of people start with a tenner.

All lessons

Not financial advice. These lessons are general education only. Bitcoin prices can swing hard. Never put in more than you can afford to lose, and do your own research.