BitcoinMadeClear

What is Bitcoin in one minute?

Bitcoin is digital money you can send without a bank handling the payment. A public record tracks who can spend it, and computers check that payments follow the rules.

Updated

Jump to a question

What is the main idea?

You do not send a file containing a coin. You approve a change to a shared record. Your wallet helps make that approval using a secret key. Other computers can check it without learning the key.

BTC is the short label for bitcoin. You can send a fraction of a bitcoin, so a payment does not have to use a whole coin.

A payment changes the recordThe sender approves, computers check, and the shared record changes.You approveYour secret key stays privateComputers checkThe payment must follow the rulesThe record changesThe recipient can spend it
The sender approves, computers check, and the shared record changes.

What would that look like?

Imagine you want to send bitcoin to a friend. Your friend shares a receiving address. You check that address, the amount and the fee before your wallet approves the payment. Your friend does not need your secret key.

The payment can wait before a miner includes it in a block, a group of payments added to the record. An address on that public record is not the same as a private bank statement.

What should you remember?

The record shows the bitcoin. The keys control spending. A confirmed payment has no central help desk that can undo it. Understanding that difference is a useful place to begin, even if you never own bitcoin.

Sources