Bitcoin is digital money that runs on a distributed network of computers. Sometimes people use the word Bitcoin to refer to things such as; the currency itself, the decentralized public ledger, the Bitcoin protocol with which the computers communicate, or the ecosystem that includes all of that.

Bitcoin as peer-to-peer (P2P) digital currency is sometimes referred to as bitcoin (with lower “b”) or simply BTC. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which means it is a digital currency protected by cryptographic techniques. It was the first cryptocurrency that came into existence. The first BTC transaction block – known as the genesis block, was mined on the 3rd of January 2009.

The Bitcoin decentralized public ledger that records all transactions independently and without a central institution is called the blockchain. Despite being closely related, BTC and blockchain are different concepts. The blockchain data structure and the mining process allow BTC transactions to be broadcasted and recorded trustless and secure. Backed by mathematical algorithms and a network of thousands of computers checking each other, blockchain is trustless, meaning that the blockchain system does not rely on trust to function. Thus, the Bitcoin blockchain works as a decentralized digital ledger that publicly lists all confirmed BTC transactions.

‘Bitcoin’ is also used to describe the underlying open-source software upon which this network of computers runs and which it uses to communicate. In 2014, however, the original BTC client software was officially rebranded to Bitcoin Core to avoid further misunderstanding. In addition, there are many other later forks (branches off of the original BTC code) and many new implementations with different features- called cryptocurrencies.

Satoshi Nakamoto conceptualized Bitcoin. His idea was to create a unique digital payment system that would permit borderless financial transactions to occur without the need for mediators like banks or governments. The distributed architecture provided by blockchain technology, along with the cryptographic techniques, makes BTC very resistant to attacks and fraud.

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