Money without a middleman
Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by an unknown person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. It lets two people send value to each other over the internet without a bank in between. Instead of a company keeping the records, thousands of computers around the world hold the same copy of the ledger, called the blockchain.
How transactions are confirmed
New transactions are bundled into blocks roughly every ten minutes. Miners compete to add the next block by solving a hard mathematical puzzle; this is called proof of work. The winner receives newly created bitcoin plus fees. Once a block is buried under more blocks, changing it becomes practically impossible.
A fixed supply and the halving
There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin. About every four years the reward for miners is cut in half, an event known as the halving. It slows down the creation of new coins; you can follow the next one on our Bitcoin halving countdown.
Why the price moves so much
The price of Bitcoin is set purely by supply and demand on exchanges, around the clock. News, interest rates, regulation and the mood of investors can move it by double-digit percentages in days. The Fear & Greed Index and the Bitcoin rainbow chart help put the current price into context, and the Bitcoin price page shows live data and analysis.
Risks to keep in mind
- Prices can fall sharply; only invest money you can afford to lose.
- A transaction cannot be reversed: sending to a wrong address means the coins are lost.
- Whoever holds the private key controls the coins, so safe storage matters.
- Rules and taxes differ from country to country.