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Bitcoin is like digital gold. Just as gold has been valued for centuries as a store of wealth and a hedge against economic uncertainty, Bitcoin is regarded as a modern, digital alternative. Gold is mined from the earth through a labor-intensive process, and similarly, Bitcoin is mined through computational power in a process calledProof of Work.
Both gold and Bitcoin have a limited supply: there’s only so much gold in the world, and Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins. This scarcity contributes to their value.Additionally, just as gold can be stored and traded, Bitcoin allows people to store and transfer value globally without the need for intermediaries, making it a reliable asset in the digital age.
Created in 2009, Bitcoin was the first of today’s cryptocurrencies, later giving inspiration to projects like Ethereum and thousands of other crypto projects. And while today’s crypto market offers thousands of other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin still stands in a league of its own, topping the charts with the largest market capitalization and the best name recognition worldwide.
In addition to being the first among the current digital currencies, Bitcoin is also seen by many as being the most secure crypto network, largely due to its wide mining network and Bitcoin’s steadfast commitment to proof-of-work as its consensus method to validate transactions.
Bitcoin was designed to be money, a verifiable and secure way to send value from person A to person B. But new developments like inscriptions (data storage) are bringing new functionality to the Bitcoin network, including Bitcoin’s own version of NFTs and BRC-20 tokens that trade on the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin was created by an anonymous team or individual. Someone using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto is credited with the creation and has never been positively identified, despite several people claiming to be Satoshi over the years. HBO has also released a documentary which aimed to uncover the true identity of Satoshi.
To our knowledge, Bitcoin was created without a profit motive — but rather with an altruistic intention: to offer a sound alternative to what was seen at the time as a broken financial system. Bitcoin’s launch coincided with the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008.
Satoshis, or Sats, are the smallest division of Bitcoin, with each Bitcoin equal to 100 million Satoshis.
A large part of Bitcoin’s appeal is in its fixed supply. Bitcoin mining continues to grow the circulating supply, but there is a fixed limit to how many Bitcoin will ever exist: 21 million.
Bitcoin’s supply follows an emission schedule that is dependent on halvings. This is an event that takes place on average every 4 years and reduces the amount of new Bitcoin that enters circulation and is paid to miners for validating the network.
Each halving has a diminishing impact on the Bitcoin network, but has historically acted as a catalyst for price increases. The latest bitcoin halving occurred in April 2024.
Interested to see what the current block reward is for miners? Check it out here.
Bitcoin uses proof-of-work to validate transactions. In a nutshell, Bitcoin miners must invest computational power (electricity, hardware, and maintenance) to be able to verify transactions on the blockchain.
Miners earn both network fees and block rewards for successfully mining a block. Once transactions are validated in a block, it becomes prohibitively expensive for the block to be changed because all the subsequent blocks would also have to be mined again.
Bitcoin miners also use the longest chain, so a rogue miner working overtime to re-mine prior blocks is unlikely ever to produce the longest chain. Shorter chains are ignored. This clever structure makes Bitcoin transactions virtually impossible to reverse and truly decentralized, with over 1 million miners across the globe.
Like other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin uses crypto wallets to store Bitcoin. Each wallet has private keys and public keys, with private keys allowing you to control your Bitcoin on the blockchain and send your Bitcoin to any public wallet address. Others can also send Bitcoin to your public wallet address, making Bitcoin function as a way to transfer value — like money, but without any middlemen like banks or payment services.
There are many reasons that investors have become interested in Bitcoin. But on the flip side, there are also considerations to be aware of when investing in the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Below are the common bull and bear cases for the future of Bitcoin:
Bitcoin Dominance is a measure of how large Bitcoin’s market capitalization is compared to the total cryptocurrency sector. This is measured as a percent and is a popular indicator to see where money is flowing within the industry.
Investors watch the BTC.D chart closely to determine if Bitcoin is leading the way, or an “alt-season” can be expected. Historically, Bitcoin used to make up the vast majority of the crypto market’s valuation. But as more and more meaningful blockchains and applications launch, we expect this to continue to decline.
Prior to 2023, Bitcoin was only seen as a decentralized payment system. However, the Taproot network upgrade opened up a whole new world of possibilities for Bitcoin, introducing the concepts of Ordinals.
Ordinals brought the concept of NFTs to the Bitcoin network for the first time, allowing users to inscribe photos, videos and more within blocks and trade them. And after an initial hype cycle, it is increasingly starting to look like Ordinals are here to stay.
BRC-20 tokens were also made possible by the recent Taproot upgrade. While Ordinals represent the NFTs of the Bitcoin network, BRC-20 tokens represent the fungible version of this innovation. Instead of allowing unique images or videos to be inscribed into Bitcoin, BRC-20 tokens allow users to own and trade fungible altcoins on the Bitcoin network.
Launched with simply a white paper and an anonymous founder, the future of the Bitcoin network was put in the hands of the community. As a result, intense debates have occurred over the years around the purpose and best use case for Bitcoin. This debate has led to variations of the network launching with modified code, which are called forks.
Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) was the first fork of Bitcoin, launching in 2017 in an attempt to speed up Bitcoin’s transactions. While the original purpose of Bitcoin was to be a peer to peer payment system, this became unattainable as the network got extremely popular. Bitcoin Cash emerged to fill this crack, acquiring a loyal community of its own in the process.
$BCH is still relevant, but things never truly played out. Instead of overtaking the OG crypto, other solutions such as the Bitcoin Lightning Network and other Layer-2s emerged to aid Bitcoin’s troubles.
The Bitcoin Lightning Network emerged in 2016 as a solution to scale the Bitcoin network, making payments cheaper and faster. As opposed to being a fork of Bitcoin like $BCH and $BSV, the Lightning Network serves as a layer-2, being built on top of Bitcoin’s infrastructure.
To date, Bitcoin’s Lightning Network has seen success. It is currently being utilized within El Salvador’s government-created wallet, as well as being used for tipping on online platforms like Substack.
Instead of being a fork, Wrapped Bitcoin ($WBTC) is directly tied to the price of Bitcoin and each $WBTC represents one Bitcoin on the Ethereum network. Since blockchains cannot easily communicate with each other, this was a solution that was implemented to allow Bitcoin to be used in DeFi activities.
By having each $WBTC be backed by a physical Bitcoin, users can own, trade and utilize $WBTC in DeFi in the same way that they do with any other ERC-20 token. All while knowing they can redeem their $WBTC to $BTC 1:1 at any time.
Like WBTC, cbBTC is another version of wrapped Bitcoin. It maintains a 1:1 backing with Bitcoin and can be used across various DeFi applications.
Backed by Coinbase—one of the biggest names in crypto—cbBTC is gaining traction, with many favoring it over WBTC due to Coinbase's reputation. However, since it’s still new (launched in Septemeber 2024), we'll have to see how it performs over time.
Michael Saylor, chairman of MicroStrategy, is obsessed with Bitcoin. So much so that they only hold in their Bitcoin treasury since 2020.
MicroStrategy uses other debt instruments to raise money to solely invest in Bitcoin. Sure, it sounds lowkey crazy but it seems to be working - they currently sit on unrealized gains of $25B. Not bad, eh?
New Bitcoin are issued into the circulating supply every time a new block is added to the blockchain. However, the amount that is added to the supply is diminishing over time, per the schedule of the Bitcoin halving. New Bitcoin issuance will stop once the total supply reaches 21 million tokens. Importantly, some tokens have been lost over time, with many people estimating there could now only be 18 million tokens total.
You can buy Bitcoin through a crypto exchange like Coinbase. We’ve reviewed some of the best ways to buy Bitcoin, exploring costs, security features, and more.
You can use a hardware crypto wallet or a software crypto wallet to store your Bitcoin. We’ve reviewed some best Bitcoin wallet options, depending on your needs.
Generally, Bitcoin focuses on use cases that involve the transfer of value, like sending Bitcoin to a family member or making a purchase in Bitcoin. Ethereum was designed to run smart contracts, computer programs that live on the blockchain. Another notable difference is in how the two networks validate transactions. Bitcoin still uses proof of work, whereas the Ethereum network uses proof of stake.
Both Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens use inscriptions, a form of data storage on the Bitcoin blockchain, to bring new functionality to Bitcoin. Ordinals are much like NFTs you’d see on other networks like Ethereum. BRC-20 tokens are similar to ERC-20 tokens found on the Ethereum network, a way to bring value or additional functionality to crypto projects.
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