Bitcoin Basics

Learn what is Bitcoin: a digital currency offering rapid, secure transactions with a fixed supply of 21 million.

Bitcoin can be purchased in a variety of ways using brokerages, exchanges, peer-to-peer networks, and more. We go over the options.

Learning how to send and receive bitcoin is easy, and does not require a complete understanding of Bitcoin.

Which digital asset is better for your investment portfolio; which is more likely to be profitable and carries less risk over the long-term?

A transaction is a transfer of Bitcoin value on the blockchain. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible once added to the blockchain.

A private key is used to verify ownership and sign transactions in order to send bitcoin. A private key can derive a public key.

Bitcoin has been criticized as unfair from a few different angles. However, these accusations are based on inaccurate assumptions and poor measurement.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Explore the origins, disappearance, and legacy of Bitcoin's mysterious founder.

Bitcoin can be used to purchase many goods and services, such as gift cards, travel experiences, artisanal products, and more.

Bitcoin and gold are the primary inflation hedges utilized by consumers. Bitcoin offers superior value as a medium of exchange and secure long-term value relative to gold.

Bitcoin is often compared to Ethereum as an investment and a potential money. However, the two projects are fundamentally different. Bitcoin is decentralized, sound money while Ethereum is neither.

Bitcoin is built on a public and pseudonymous blockchain, so what implications does this have for user privacy and anonymity?

Fiat currency is a government-issued currency that is not backed by any asset. The government can increase the supply of this currency. Most economies use fiat currency as their main form of money.

Fungibility is a property of goods whose units are interchangeable. As with all monies, fungibility is a critical property for Bitcoin, and it directly upholds the usability of bitcoin as a privacy-preserving, censorship-resistant money.

As the bitcoin market has grown, it has begun to compete with and integrate into traditional financial products. Bitcoin’s network effect has grown to compete with that of gold and fiat currency.

Encryption is the process of transforming data such that it can only be deciphered and understood by specific parties. Encryption is critical to maintaining security and privacy in the digital realm.

Bitcoin uses a blockchain to process payments, but blockchains are slow and inefficient databases. For Bitcoin to become the global reserve money, additional infrastructure is needed to enable more, faster, and cheaper payments.

Bitcoin is more than just a currency, it is a transformation of the global financial system with major implications for communities around the world.

Governments have both incentives and disincentives for banning Bitcoin. While most governments are currently incapable of banning Bitcoin on their own, a coalition of governments might be able to effectuate a ban.

Bitcoin’s database, the blockchain, is practically impervious to attack or corruption. However, individuals can still lose their bitcoin in a variety of ways, so it’s important to be careful.

Bitcoin is a new form of money, and its network has rapidly grown, but you can't spend it everywhere yet. What needs to change for this to happen?

Bitcoin mining requires significant electrical energy, accounting for the majority of production and operation costs associated with the Bitcoin Network.

What are the differences between transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, and on other solutions such as the Lightning Network?

The demographic of bitcoin investors has shifted as more individuals and institutions look to bitcoin as a means of securing long-term value, moving away from centralized financial institutions, and capitalizing on current and emerging use-value.

The success of Bitcoin has generated many imitations and spin-offs. How do you know there won't be a "better Bitcoin" among them?

Learn why Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap, known as the hard cap, cannot be changed due to incentive and governance models in the Bitcoin protocol.

Although the Bitcoin market and its institutional support have grown rapidly in recent years, negative perceptions of its core principles and utility have kept many potential users from participating.

Bitcoin’s network utilizes a wide range of technologies and ideas from previous projects. Additionally, Bitcoin implements several original technologies.

One bitcoin is divisible into 100 million satoshis. Learn why satoshis give Bitcoin great divisibility and flexibility.

Bitcoin transaction fees promote network security by allowing miners to remain profitable. Transaction fees increase in cost as transaction size, urgency, and network activity increase.

New bitcoin are released every 10 minutes by mining a new block. When a minor finds a new block, they receive the sum of the transaction fees and the block reward, known as the block subsidy.

Money is a tool that helps people store value and conduct exchange. Some types of money are better forms of money than others. Dominant monies used in human history have been replaced when a better type of money was implemented.

Bitcoin is a unique asset that can meet the specific needs and goals of an investor who is looking for diversification, flexibility, and increased purchasing power in the long-term.

Learn what scams exist to steal bitcoin, how to spot them, and how to protect yourself from becoming a victim. Learn how to safeguard your bitcoin.

No software is invulnerable, but so far, Bitcoin has proven to be the most secure monetary system in history. Can it be hacked?

An estimated 1% of the global population uses Bitcoin today, we dive into how we measured this.

An overview of the wealthiest bitcoin addresses, and how much the top billionaires, companies, ETFs, and governments are holding.

There are a number of ways to accumulate bitcoin. Most often, bitcoin is purchased with fiat currency. Bitcoin can also be earned, inherited, or gifted.

Governments around the world procure bitcoin. There is no way to know exactly how much bitcoin a government holds, but governments predominantly acquire bitcoin through seizure and forfeiture.

Network effects are critical for the adoption of new technologies, so how do these play out in Bitcoin and why is this so difficult to replicate for altcoins?