Bitcoin

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* [http://invezz.com/contributed/forex/7440-Bits-of-Bitcoin-What-To-Call-Them Bits of Bitcoin – What To Call Them?]
 
* [http://invezz.com/contributed/forex/7440-Bits-of-Bitcoin-What-To-Call-Them Bits of Bitcoin – What To Call Them?]
 
* [http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/12/why-i-want-bitcoin-to-die-in-a.html Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire]
 
* [http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/12/why-i-want-bitcoin-to-die-in-a.html Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire]
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* [https://medium.com/quinn-norton/f3db7e13e6e3 The Values of Money: Bitcoin, Money, and Datalove, Part One]
  
 
== Other links and references ==
 
== Other links and references ==

Revision as of 13:34, 20 December 2013

File Format
Name Bitcoin
Ontology
Released 2009

Bitcoin is an "alternative currency" that is generated electronically with no central authority, with a loosely-connected set of network nodes engaged in "mining" coins by being the first to solve difficult mathematical computations, validating transactions involving the "coins" (the process of validating others' transactions is in fact the manner in which coins are "mined", thus incentivizing using one's computer resources to facilitate this process), and storing transactions involving them. This is all accomplished algorithmically. The algorithms are defined such that the rate of coin issuance declines over the years until it tops out at a total money supply of 21 million bitcoins, unlike fiat currencies that can be issued without limit by their issuing authority.

A bitcoin, and its associated transactions, can be represented in various ways, even including actual physical metal coins if you can believe the picture in the Wikipedia article. A binary format is defined in the Bitcoin technical specs, but archived Bitcoin blocks in the "Block Explorer" site are displayed in a JSON-based format (served as text/plain).

The smallest possible unit in a Bitcoin transaction is .00000001 bitcoins, also known as a satoshi. Other subdivisions of the bitcoin are unsettled at the moment, but a unit of 1/1000 of a bitcoin (known as an mbit, or embit, or mBTC) seems to be emerging as rising prices make the bitcoin itself unwieldily large.

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