Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency – a type of digital asset that uses public-key cryptography to record, sign and send transactions over the Bitcoin blockchain.
Launched on Jan. 3, 2009, by an anonymous computer programmer (or group of programmers) under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”, the Bitcoin network (with an uppercase “B”) is a peer-to-peer electronic payment system that uses a native cryptocurrency called bitcoin (lower case “b”) to transfer value over the internet or act as a store of value like gold and silver.