Intro to Cryptocurrency: What is Bitcoin? How Do I Get Involved in “Other Bitcoins?”

nelkins (25)in #cryptocurrency • 7 years ago (edited)

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and I do not recommend risking more than you are willing to lose.

Bitcoin was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto as a decentralized peer to peer payment system (meaning no middle man or central authority aka banks). Although Bitcoin was not the first cryptocurrency, it is the first successful cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin has no physical coin with no physical backing.

In a simple explanation for the average user, Bitcoin is nothing more than App, Website or Computer program that provides a Bitcoin Wallet and allows users to send and receive bitcoins.
In a more in-depth explanation, the Bitcoin network uses the “Blockchain.” The blockchain is public ledger that contains every transaction ever processed. These transactions are picked and placed into a “block” by “miners.” Blocks are number of transactions grouped together and can only be created every 10 minutes according to the Bitcoin protocol. Miners are users who are using their computer’s processing power to verify and validate each and every transaction.
The Bitcoin protocol has a set limit of 21 million Bitcoins that can ever be created by miners.
Bitcoin can be divided into one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and that is referred to as a “Satoshi.”

Other “Bitcoins”, Other cryptos/cryptocurrencies or Other coins are referred to as Altcoins.
The two main ways you can join Bitcoin or Altcoins is through directly purchasing or using faucets to slowly accumulate.
How you can obtain bitcoin is determined by where you live. You can buy Bitcoin with Coinbase, Uphold, and Abra. You can buy other coins with these apps such as Ethereum and Litecoin.
- Coinbase
- Uphold
- Abra
Using Faucets and apps give you tiny amounts of the coin but over time it adds up and you can earn a lot of coins. Here is a link to my previous post about faucets and apps I recommend to use. Link