Bitcoin is a form of digital currency. It is a payment system, and the currency is Bitcoin itself. Satoshi Nakamoto first created the whitepaper and original reference implementation of Bitcoin; his true identity is still unknown. Bitcoin does not rely on intermediary regulatory services like banks or governments. One of the reasons for Bitcoin’s explosion in popularity is that it is a decentralized system, i.e., not under the control of any one central organization. You’ll learn more about decentralization later in this article. How does Bitcoin Work? Bitcoin uses blockchain technology, which in simple terms, is a public ledger system. A ledger is an account of the transactions taking place between individual addresses. All transactions made through this system are listed in a ledger which is stored by Bitcoin users. Everyone running a node (a software wallet, for example) has a copy. Whenever somebody makes a transaction, a new entry is made, and once this is verified by other...