Bitcoin

File Format
Name	Bitcoin
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Currency Bitcoin
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 "minting" coins by solving difficult mathematical computations, validating such newly-created "coins", and storing transactions involving them. This is all accomplished algorithmically.

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).

Data format info

• Protocol specification

Other specs and definitions

• Blocks
• Address
• Transactions

Software

• Bitcoin software on Sourceforge
• Bitcoin-Qt client
• BitcoinAverage API
• BitcoinMonitor API

Sample files

• Block Explorer: a Bitcoin archive
• The "Genesis Block"; first Bitcoin block ever generated
• Genesis block in some other formats including raw binary

Current and historical prices

• Bitcoin live price graph
• Chart of historical Bitcoin prices in terms of gold

News coverage

• Government Ban On Bitcoin Would Fail Miserably
• Bitcoin ATM
• Bitcoin value reaches new high against US dollar (that was $32; as of late 2013 it's now over $600)
• Hackers steal over $12,000 in bitcoins
• Bitcoins Seized by DEA
• Bitcoin's vast ovvervaluation seems to be caused by usually-illegal price fixing
• Person gets windfall from Bitcoins he forgot he owned; bought for $24 and sold for around $1 million
• A Bitcoin Exchange Holding $4.1 Million For 1,000 Customers Has Simply Vanished
• Sir Richard Branson's Out of This World Plan for Bitcoin
• James Howells searches for hard drive with £4m-worth of bitcoins stored
• Chinese government says Bitcoin cannot be used as currency

Academic papers

• Paper criticizing Bitcoin (and the concept of decentralized currencies)
• Paper showing that selfish mining behavior could end up dominating Bitcoin

Commentary

• My adventure in donating bitcoins to the Internet Archive
• Open source governance in Bitcoin
• Anecdote about the wrong way to promote Bitcoins
• The Bitcoin Network is 0 FLOPS
• How the Bitcoin protocol actually works

Other links and references

• Wikipedia article
• Getting started with Bitcoin
• Video explains Bitcoin
• What nobody seems to understand about Bitcoin (Cracked video)
• Bitcoin survival guide