What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency invented in 2008. No company runs it, no bank issues it — it lives on a global network of computers.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the original cryptocurrency. It was created in 2008 by an anonymous developer (or group) named Satoshi Nakamoto and launched in early 2009.
The core idea: a form of digital money that doesn't need a bank or a government to operate. Instead, a network of thousands of computers around the world keeps a shared ledger of every transaction ever made. That ledger is called the blockchain.
Two things make Bitcoin valuable to its holders:
1. Scarcity. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist. New bitcoins are created (or "mined") at a programmed, decreasing rate that ends entirely around the year 2140.
2. Censorship resistance. No single party can freeze, reverse, or block a Bitcoin transaction. As long as you control your private key, you control your bitcoin.
Bitcoin is volatile — its price can swing 10% or more in a day — but it has appreciated dramatically over the long term. It's often described as "digital gold" because of its hard-capped supply and store-of-value characteristics.