Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.

Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.

Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.

As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment.

According to research produced by Cambridge University there were between 2.9 million and 5.

8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, as of 2017, most of them using bitcoin.

The identity of Nakamoto remains unknown. In October 2011, Nakamoto handed over control of the source code repository and network alert key to Gavin Andresen, who became the bitcoin lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation. Nakamoto subsequently disappeared from any involvement in bitcoin.

Andresen stated he then sought to decentralize control stating: “As soon as Satoshi stepped back and threw the project onto my shoulders, one of the first things I did was try to decentralize that.” This left opportunity for controversy to develop over the future development path of bitcoin.