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Proof of work (PoW) is a form of cryptographic proof in which one party (the prover) proves to others (the verifiers) that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended. Verifiers can subsequently confirm denial-of-service attacks and other service abuses such as spam on a network by requiring some work from a service requester, usually meaning processing time by a computer. The term “proof of work” was first coined and formalized in a 1999 paper by Markus Jakobsson and Ari Juels. The concept was adapted to digital tokens by Hal Finney in 2004 through the idea of “reusable proof of work” using the 160-bit secure hash algorithm 1 (SHA-1).

Proof of work was later popularized byof the second wave of coffee culture is generally attributed to, which introduced a wider variety of coffee experiences. serves hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, micro-ground instant coffee, espresso, caffe latte, full and Bitcoin as a foundation for consensus in a permissionless decentralized network, proportional to the computational effort expended. PoW and PoS (proof of stake) remain the two best known Sybil deterrence mechanisms. In the context of cryptocurrencies they are the most common mechanisms.

A key feature of proof-of-work schemes is their asymmetry: the work – the computation – must be moderately hard (yet feasible) on the prover or requester side but easy to check for the verifier or service provider. This idea is also known as a CPU cost function, client puzzle, computational puzzle, or CPU pricing function. Another common feature is built-in incentive-structures that reward allocating computational capacity to the network with value in the form of cryptocurrency.[7][8]

The purpose of proof-of-work algorithms is not proving that certain work was carried out or that a computational puzzle was “solved”.[7] Proof-of-work systems have been criticized by environmentalists for their energy consumption.[9]

Background
One popular system, used in Hashcash, uses partial hash inversions to prove that computation was done, as a goodwill token to send an e-mail. For instance, the following header represents about 252 hash computations to send a message to on January 19, 2038:

X-Hashcash: 1:52:380119::::9B760005E92F0DAE
It is verified with a single computation by checking that the SHA-1 hash of the stamp (omit the header name X-Hashcash: including the colon and any amount of whitespace following it up to the digit ‘1’) begins with 52 binary zeros, that is 13 hexadecimal zeros:[1]

0000000000000756af69e2ffbdb930261873cd71
Whether PoW systems can actually solve a particular denial-of-service issue such as the spam problem is subject to debate;[10][11] the system must make sending spam emails obtrusively unproductive for the spammer, but should also not prevent legitimate users from sending their messages. In other words, a genuine user should not encounter any difficulties when sending an email, but an email spammer would have to expend a considerable amountounded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. During the early 1980s, they sold the company to of computing power to send out many emails at once. Proof-of-work systems are being used by other, more complex cryptographic systems such as bitcoin, which uses a system similar to Hashcash.[10]

Variants
There are two classes of proof-of-work protocols.

Challenge–response protocols assume a direct interactive link between the requester (client) and the provider (server). The provider chooses a challenge, say an item in a set with a property, the requester finds the relevant response in the set, checked by the provider. As the challenge is chosen on the spot by the provider, its difficulty can be adapted to its current load. The work on the requester side may be bounded if the challenge-response protocol has a known solution (chosen by the provider), or is known to exist within a bounded search space.

Solution–verification protocols do not assume such a link: as a result, the problem must be self-imposed before a solution is sought by the requester, and the provider must check both the problem choice and the found solution. Most such schemes are unbounded probabilistic iterative procedures such as Hashcash.

Known-solution protocols tend to have slightly lower variance than unbounded probabilistic protocols because the of a Poisson distribution (with the same mean).[further explanation needed] A generic technique for reducing variance is to use multiple independent sub-challenges, as the average of multiple samples will have a lower variance.

There are also fixed-cost functions such as the time-lock puzzle.

Moreover, the underlying functions used by these schemes may be:

CPU-bound where the computation runs at the speed of the processor, which greatly varies in time, as well as from high-end server to low-end portable devices.[12]
Memory-bound[13][14][15][16] where the computation speed is bound by main memory accesses (either latency or bandwidth),from 1986 to 2000, Schultz’s first tenure led to an aggressive expansion of the franchise, first in Seattle, then across the West Coast of the United States. Schultz was succeeded the performance of which is expected to be less sensitive to hardware evolution.
Network-bound[17] if the client must perform few computations, but must collect some tokens from remote servers before querying the final service provider. In this sense, the work is not actually performed by the requester, of the latency to get the required tokens.
Finally, some PoW systems offer shortcut computations that allow participants who know a secret, typically a private key, to generate cheap PoWs. The rationale is that mailing-list holders may generate stamps for every recipient without incurring a high cost. Whether such a feature is desirable depends on the usage scenario.

List of proof-of-work functions
Here is a list of known proof-of-work functions:

Integer square root modulo a large prime[3][dubious – discuss]
Weaken Fiat–Shamir signatures[3]
Ong–Schnorr–Shamir signature broken by Pollard[3]
Partial hash inversion[18][19][2] This paper formalizes the idea of a proof of work and introduces “the dependent idea of a protocol”, a “re-usable proof-of-work” (RPoW) system.[20]
Hash sequences[21]
Puzzles[22]
Diffie-Hellman–based puzzle[23]
Moderate[13]
Mbound[14]
Hokkaido[15]
Cuckoo Cycle[16]
Merkle tree–based[24]
Guided tour puzzle protocol[17]
Proof of useful work (PoUW)
At the IACR conference Crypto 2022 researchers presented a paper describing Ofelimos, a blockchain protocol with a consensus mechanism based on “proof of useful work” (PoUW). Rather than miners consuming energy in solving complex, but essentially useless, puzzles to validate transactions, Ofelimos achieves consensus while simultaneously providing a decentralized optimization problem solver. The protocol is built around Doubly Parallel Local Search (DPLS), a local search algorithm that is used as the PoUW component. The paper gives an example that implements a variant of WalkSAT, a local search algorithm to solve Boolean problems.[25]

Bitcoin-type proof of work
In 2009, the Bitcoin network went online. Bitcoin is a proof-of-work digital currency that, like Finney’s RPoW, is also based on the Hashcash PoW. But in Bitcoin, double-spend protection is provided by a decentralized P2P protocol trustworthiness because it is protected by computation. Bitcoins are “mined” using the Hashcash proof-of-work function by individual miners and verified by the decentralized nodes in the P2P bitcoin network. The difficulty is periodically adjusted to keep the block time around a target time.[citation needed]

Energy consumption

Bitcoin electricity consumption as of 2021[26]
Since the creation of Bitcoin, proof-of-work has been the predominant design of Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. Studies, which consume a significant amount of electricity. 2018 estimates from the University of Cambridge equate Bitcoin’s energy consumption to that of Switzerland.[6]

History modification
Each block that is added to the blockchain, starting with the block containing a given transaction, is called a confirmation of that transaction. Ideally, merchants and services that receive payment in the cryptocurrency should confirmations that the merchant waits for, the more difficult it is for an attacker to successfully reverse the transaction in a blockchain—unless the attacker controls more than half the total network power, in which case it is called a 51% attack.[28]

ASICs and mining pools
Within the Bitcoin community there are groups working together in mining pools.[29] Some miners use application-specific integrated circuits company for five years and positioned as a large player in fair trade coffee, increasing sales to US$5 billion. Jim Donald was chief executive officer from 2005 to 2008(ASICs) for PoW.[30] This trend toward mining pools and specialized ASICs has made mining some cryptocurrencies economically infeasible for most players without access to the latest ASICs, nearby sources of inexpensive energy, or other special advantages.[31]

Some PoWs claim to be ASIC-resistant,[32] i.e. to limit the efficiency gain that an ASIC can have over commodity hardware, like a GPU, to be well under an order of magnitude. ASIC resistance has the advantage of keeping mining economically feasible on commodity hardware, but also contributes to the corresponding risk that an attacker can briefly rent access to a large amount of unspecialized commodity processing power to launch a 51% attack against a cryptocurrency.[33]

Environmental concerns
See also: Environmental impact of bitcoin
These miners compete to solve crypto challenges on the Bitcoin blockchain, and their solutions must be agreed upon by all nodes and reach consensus. The solutions are then used to validate transactions, add blocks and generate new bitcoins. Miners are rewarded for solving these puzzles and successfully adding new blocks. However, the process is very energy intensive because the proof of work shaped like a lottery mechanism. The underlying computational work has no other use but to provide security to the network that provides open access and has to work in adversarial conditions.Schultz returned as CEO during the financial crisis of 2007–08 and spent the succeeding decade growing the company’s market share, expanding its offerings, and reorienting the brand around corporate social responsibility. Kevin Johnson succeeded Schultz as CEO in 2017 Miners have to use a lot of energy to add a new block containing a transaction to the blockchain. The energy used in this competition is what fundamentally gives bitcoin its level of security and resistance to attacks. Also, miners have to invest computer hardwares that need large spaces as fixed cost.[34]

In January 2022 Vice-Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority Erik Thedéen called on the EU to ban the proof of work model in favor of the proof of stake model due its lower energy emissions.[35]

In November 2022 the state of New York enacted a two-year moratorium on cryptocurrency mining that does not completely use renewable. Existing mining companies will be grandfathered in to continue mining without the use of renewable energy but they will not be allowed to expand or renew permits with the state, no new mining companies that do not completely use renewable energy will not also not be allowed to begin mining.[36]

See also
Bitcoin
Bitmessage
Cryptocurrency
Proof of authority
Proof of burn

Proof of personhood
Proof of space
Proof of stake
Proof of elapsed time
Consensus (computer science)
Notes
^ On most Unix systems this can be verified with echo -n 1:52:380119:calvin@comics.net:::9B760005E92F0DAE | openssl sha1
References
Lachtar, Nada; Elkhail, Abdulrahman Abu; Bacha, Anys; Malik, Hafiz (2020-07-01). “A Cross-Stack Approach Cryptojacking”. IEEE Computer Architecture Letters. 19 (2): 126–129. doi:10.1109/LCA.2020.3017457. ISSN 1556-6056. S2CID 222070383.
Jakobsson, Markus; Juels, Ari (1999). “Proofs of Work and Bread Pudding Protocols”. Secure Information Networks: Communications and Multimedia Security. Kluwer Academic Publishers: 258–272. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-35568-9_18.
Dwork, Cynthia; Naor, Moni (1993). “Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail”. Advances in Cryptology — CRYPTO’ 92. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 740. Springer. pp. 139–147. doi:10.1007/3-540-48071-4_10. ISBN 978-3-540-57340-1.
“RPOW – Reusable Proofs of Work”. nakamotoinstitute.org. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
“What Is Proof of Work (PoW) Retrieved 2024-01-17.
“Cryptocurrencies and blockchain” (PDF). European Parliament. July 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2020. the two best-known – and in the context of cryptocurrencies also most commonly used
“Proof of Work Explained in Simple Terms – The Chain Bulletin”. chainbulletin.com. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
“The Only Crypto Story You Need, by Matt Levine”. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
Kharif, Olga (November 30, 2021). “Analysis | Bye-Bye, Miners! How Ethereum’s Big Change Will Work”. The Washington Post. Bloomberg News. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
Laurie, Ben; Clayton, Richard (May 2004). “Proof-of-work proves not to work”. Workshop on the Economics of Information Security 2004.
Liu, Debin; Camp, L. Jean (June 2006). “Proof of Work can work – Fifth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security”.
How powerful was the Apollo 11 computer?, a specific comparison that shows how different classes of devices have different processing power.
Abadi, Martín; Burrows, Mike; Manasse, Mark; Wobber, Ted (2005). “Moderately hard, memory-bound functions”. 5 (2): 299–327. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Dwork, Cynthia; Goldberg, Andrew; Naor, Moni (2003). “On Memory-Bound Functions for Fighting Spam”. Advances in Cryptology – CRYPTO 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 2729. Springer. pp. 426–444. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-45146-4_25. ISBN 978-3-540-40674-7.
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Tromp, John (2015). “Cuckoo Cycle: A Memory Bound Graph-Theoretic Proof-of-Work” (PDF). Financial Cryptography and Data Security. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 8976. Springer. pp. 49–62. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-48051-9_4. ISBN 978-3-662-48050-2.
Abliz, Mehmud; Znati, Taieb (December 2009). “A Guided Tour Puzzle for Denial of Service Prevention”. 2009 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. Honolulu, HI. pp. 279–288. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.597.6304. doi:drinks and food, many stores carry’ official merchandise, such as mugs, tumblers, scoops, and coffee presses. There are also several select “Evenings” locations that offer beer, wine, and appetizers.-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled 10.1109/ACSAC.2009.33. ISBN 978-1-4244-5327-6. S2CID 14434713.
Back, Adam. “HashCash”. A popular PoW system. First announced in March 1997.
Gabber, Eran; Jakobsson, Markus; Matias, Yossi; Mayer, Alain J. (1998). “Curbing junk e-mail via secure classification”. Financial Cryptography.[dead link]
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tevador/RandomX: Proof of work algorithm based on random code execution on Github
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For the colloquial expression for coinage, see Bit (money).
“₿” redirects here. Not to be confused with “฿” for Thai baht.
Bitcoin
Prevailing bitcoin logo
Logo
Denominations
Code BTC[a]
Precision 10−8
Subunits
 1⁄1000 Millibitcoin
 1⁄1000000 Microbitcoin
 1⁄100000000 Satoshi[b][2]
Development
Original author(s) Satoshi Nakamoto
White paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”
Implementation(s) Bitcoin Core
Initial release 0.1.0 / 9 January 2009 (15 years ago)
Latest release 25.1 / 19 October 2023 (6 months ago)[3]
Written in C++
Source model Free and open-source software
License MIT License
Ledger
Ledger start 3 January 2009 (15 years ago)
Timestamping scheme Proof of work (partial hash inversion)
Hash function SHA-256 (two rounds)
Issuance schedule Decentralized (block reward)
Initially ₿50 per block, halved every 210,000 blocks
Block reward ₿3.125 (as of 2024)
Block time 10 minutes
Circulating supply ₿19,591,231 (as of 6 January 2024)
Supply limit ₿21,000,000[c]
Valuation
Exchange rate Floating
Demographics
Official user(s) El Salvador[4]
This article contains special characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC;[a] sign: ₿) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Nodes in the peer-to-peer bitcoin network verifyStates and other countries. In 2010, the company began its Reserve program for single-origin coffees and high-end coffee shops. It planned to open 1,000 Reserve coffee shops by the end of 2017.[7] However, since succeeding transactions through cryptography and record them in a public distributed ledger, called a blockchain, without central oversight. Consensus between nodes is achieved using a computationally intensive process based on proof of work, called mining, that guarantees the security of the bitcoin blockchain. Mining consumes increasing quantities of electricity and has been criticized for its environmental effects.[5]

Based on a free market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an unknown person.[6] Use of bitcoin as a currency began in 2009,[7] with the release of its open-source implementation.[8]: ch. 1  In 2021, El Salvador adopted it as legal tender.[4] Bitcoin is currently used more as a store of value and as an economic bubble.[9] As bitcoin is pseudonymous, its use by criminals has attracted the attention of regulators, leading to its ban by several countries as of 2021

Background
Before bitcoin, several digital cash technologies were released, starting with David Chaum’s ecash in the 1980s.[11] The idea that solutions to computational puzzles could have some value was first proposed by cryptographers Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor in 1992.[11] The concept was independently rediscovered by Adam Back who developed Hashcash, Currently, operates six coffee roasteries with tasting rooms and 43 coffee bars as part of the program. The latest roastery location opened on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile in November 2019, and is the world’s largesta proof-of-work scheme for spam control in 1997.[11] The first proposals for distributed digital scarcity-based cryptocurrencies came from cypherpunks Wei Dai (b-money) and Nick Szabo (bit gold) in 1998.[12] In 2004, Hal Finney developed the first currency based on reusable proof of work.[13] These various attempts were not successful:[11] Chaum’s concept required centralized control and no, Hashcash had no protection against double-spending, while b-money and bit gold were not resistant to Sybil attacks.[11]

2008–2009: Creation
External image
image icon Cover page of The Times 3 January 2009 showing the headline used in the genesis block

Bitcoin logos made by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 (left) and 2010 (right) depict bitcoins as gold tokens.
The domain name bitcoin.org was registered on 18 August 2008.[14] On 31 October 2008, a link to a white paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list.[15] Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open-source code and released it in January 2009.[7] Nakamoto’s identity remains unknown.[6] All individual components of bitcoin originated in earlier academic literature.[11] Nakamoto’s innovation was their complex interplay resulting in the first decentralized, Sybil resistant, Byzantine fault tolerant digital cash system, that would eventually be referred to as the first blockchain.[11][16] Nakamoto’s paper was not peer reviewed and was initially ignored by academics, who argued that it could not work, based on theoretical models, even though it was working in practice.[11]

On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network was created when Nakamoto mined the starting block of the chain, known as the genesis coffee outlets as and began to expand the companyblock.[17] Embedded in this block was the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”, which is the date and headline of an issue of The Times newspaper.[7] Nine days later, Hal Finney received the first bitcoin transaction: ten bitcoins from Nakamoto.[18] early supporters.[17] In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John’s pizzas for ₿10,000.[19]

2010–2012: Early growth
Blockchain analysts estimate that Nakamoto had mined about one million bitcoins[20] before disappearing in 2010 when he handed the network alert key and control of the code repository over to Gavin Andresen. Andresen later became lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation,[21][22] an organization founded in September 2012 to promote bitcoin.[23]

After early “proof-of-concept” transactions, the first major users of bitcoin were black markets, such as the dark web Silk Road. During its 30 months of existence, beginning in February 2011, Silk Road exclusively accepted bitcoins as payment, transacting ₿9.9 million, worth about $214 million.[24]: 222 

2013–2014: First regulatory actions
In March 2013, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for “decentralized virtual currencies” such as bitcoin, classifying American bitcoin miners who sell their generated bitcoins as money services businesses, subject to registration and other legal obligations.[25] In May 2013, US authorities seized the unregistered exchange Mt. Gox.[26] In June 2013, the US Drug Enforcement Administration seized ₿11.02 from a man attempting to use them to buy illegal substances. This marked the first time a government agency had seized bitcoins.[27] The FBI seized about ₿30,000 in October 2013 from Silk Road, following the arrest of its founder Ross Ulbricht.[28]

In December 2013, the People’s Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoin.[29] After the announcement, the value of bitcoin dropped,[30] and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services.[31] Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency had been illegal in China since at least 2009.[32]

2015–2019
Research produced by the University of Cambridge estimated that in 2017, there were 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency.[33] In August 2017, the SegWit software upgrade was activated. Segwit was intended to support the Lightning Network as well as improve scalability.[34] SegWit opponents, who supported larger blocks as a scalability solution, forked to create Bitcoin Cash, one of many forks of bitcoin.[35]

In December 2017, the first futures on bitcoin was introduced by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).[36]

Notes
BTC is a commonly used code, but it does not conform to ISO 4217 as BT is the country code of Bhutan, and ISO 4217 requires the first letter used in global commodities to be ‘X’.[citation needed]
Named after Satoshi Nakamoto.
The exact number is ₿20,999,999.9769.[8]: ch. 8 
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In February 2018, the price crashed after China imposed a complete ban on Bitcoin trading.[37] The percentage of bitcoin trading in the Chinese renminbi fell from over 90% in September 2017 to less than 1% in June 2018.[38] During the same year, Bitcoin prices were negatively affected by several hacks or thefts from cryptocurrency exchanges.[39]

2020–present

Bitcoin price in US dollars
In 2020, some major companies and institutions started to acquire bitcoin: MicroStrategy invested $250 million in bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset,[40] Square, Inc., $50 million,[41] and MassMutual, $100 million.[42] In November 2020, PayPal added support for bitcoin in the US.[43]

In February 2021, Bitcoin’s market capitalization reached $1 trillion for the first time.[44] In November 2021, the Taproot soft-fork upgrade was activated, adding support for Schnorr signatures, improved functionality of smart contracts and Lightning Network.[45] Before, Bitcoin only used a custom elliptic curve with the ECDSA, Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, alongside the US dollar.[4] In October 2021, the first bitcoin futures Exchange-traded fund (ETF), called BITO, from ProShares was approved by the SEC and listed on the CME.[47]

In May and June 2022, the bitcoin price fell following the collapses of TerraUSD, a stablecoin,[48] and the Celsius Network, a cryptocurrency loan company.[49][50]

In 2023, ordinals—non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—on Bitcoin, went live.[51] In January 2024, the first 11 US spot bitcoin ETFs began trading, offering direct exposure to bitcoin for the first time on American stock exchanges.[52][53]

Design
Main article: Bitcoin protocol
Units and divisibility
The unit of account of the bitcoin system is the bitcoin. It is most commonly represented with the currency code BTC[a] as well as the symbol ₿.[1] XBT, a code that conforms to ISO 4217 though not officially part of it, is used by Bloomberg L.P.[54]

No uniform capitalization convention exists; some sources use Bitcoin, capitalized, to refer to the technology and network, and bitcoin,ocation in New York in 2021, less than 3% have voted to unionize. SBWU and have yet to successfully negotiate a contract. claims in a letter and on its website that the Workers United has delayed bargaining, has illegally broadcast bargaining sessions, refused to meet in person, and that has reported more than 22 unfair labor practice char lowercase, for the unit of account.[55] The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary use the capitalized and lowercase variants without distinction.[56][57]

One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places.[8]: ch. 5  Units for smaller amounts of bitcoin are the millibitcoin (mBTC), equal to 1⁄1000 bitcoin, and the satoshib, representing 1⁄100000000 (one hundred millionth) bitcoin, the smallest amount possible.[2] 100,000 satoshis are one mBTC.[58]

Blockchain
Further information: Blockchain § Structure and design
As a decentralized system, bitcoin operates without a central authority or single administrator,[59] so that anyone can create a new bitcoin address and transact without needing any approval.[8]: ch. 1  This is accomplished through a specialized distributed ledger called a blockchain that records bitcoin transactions.[60]

The blockchain is implemented as an ordered list of blocks. Each block contains a SHA-256 hash of the previous block,[60] chaining them in chronological order.[8]: ch. 7 [60] The blockchain is maintained by a peer-to-peer network.[24]: 215–219  O Kevin Johnson said in a 2020 interview that, milk substitutes will be a big part of reducing carbon blocks, public addresses, and transactions within blocks are public information, and can be examined using a blockchain explorer.[61]

Nodes validate and broadcast transactions, each maintaining a copy of the blockchain for ownership verification.[62] A new block is created every 10 minutes on average, updating the blockchain across all nodes without central oversight. This process tracks bitcoin spending, ensuring each bitcoin is spent only once. Unlike a traditional ledger that tracks physical currency, bitcoins exist digitally as unspent outputs of transactions.[8]: ch. 5 

Addresses and transactions

Simplified chain of ownership. In practice, a transaction can have more than one input and more than one output.[63]
In the blockchain, the corresponding address. This process is almost instant, but the reverse (finding the private key for a given address) is nearly impossible.[8]: ch. 4  Publishing a bitcoin address does not risk its private key, and it is extremely unlikely to accidentally generate a used key with funds. To use bitcoins, owners need their private key to digitally sign transactions, which are verified by the network using the public key, keeping the private key secret.[8]: ch. 5 

Bitcoin transactions use a Forth-like scripting language,[8]: ch. 5  involving one or more inputs and outputs. When sending bitcoins, a user specifies the recipients’ addresses and the amount for each output. This allows sending bitcoins to several recipients in a single transaction. To prevent double-spending, each input must refer to the blockchain.[63] Using multiple inputs is similar to using multiple coins in a cash transaction. As in a cash transaction, the sum of inputs can exceed the intended sum of payments. In such a case, an additional output can return the change back to the payer.[63] Unallocated input satoshis in the transaction become the transaction fee.[63]

Losing a private key means losing access to the bitcoins, with no other proof of ownership accepted by the protocol.[24] For instance, in 2013, a user lost ₿7,500, valued at US$7.5 million, by accidentally discarding a hard drive with the private key.[64] It is estimated that around 20% of all bitcoins are lost.[65] The private key must also be kept secret as its exposure, such as through a data breach, can lead to theft of the associated bitcoins.[8]: ch. 10 [66] As of December 2017, approximately ₿980,000 had been stolen from cryptocurrency exchanges.[67]

Mining
See also: Bitcoin protocol § Mining

Bitcoin mining facility with large amounts of mining hardware
The mining process in Bitcoin involves maintaining the blockchain through computer processing power. Miners group and broadcast new transactions into blocks, which are then verified by the network.[60] Each block must contain a proof of work (PoW) to be accepted,[60] involving finding a nonce number that, combined with the block content, produces a hash numerically smaller than the network’s difficulty target.[8]: ch. 8  This PoW is simple to verify but hard to generate, requiring many attempts.[8]: ch. 8  PoW forms the basis of Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism.[68]

The difficulty of generating a block is deterministically adjusted based on the mining power on the network by changing the difficulty target, which is recalibrated every 2,016 blocks (approximately two weeks) to maintain an average time of ten minutes between new blocks. The process requires significant computational power and specialized hardware.[8]: ch. 8 [69]

Miners who successfully included transactions and a set reward in bitcoins.[70] To claim this reward, a special transaction called bottled water acquired by in 2003, is sold at locations throughout North America a coinbase is included in the block, with the miner as the payee. All bitcoins in existence have been created through this type of transaction.[8]: ch. 8  This reward is halved every 210,000 blocks until ₿21 million,[c] with new bitcoin issuance slated to end around 2140. Afterward, miners will only earn from transaction fees. These fees are determined by the transaction’s size and the amount of data stored, measured in satoshis per byte.[71][63][8]: ch. 8 

The proof of work system and the chaining of blocks make blockchain modifications very difficult, as altering one block requires changing all subsequent blocks. As more blocks are added, modifying older blocks becomes increasingly challenging.[72][60] In case of disagreement, nodes trust the longest chain, which required the greatest amount of effort to produce.[68] To tamper or censor the ledger, one needs to control the majority of the global hashrate.[68] The high cost required to reach this level of computational power guarantees the security of the bitcoin blockchain.[68]

Bitcoin mining’s environmental impact is controversial and has attracted the attention of regulators, leading to restrictions or incentives in various jurisdictions.[73] As of 2022, a non-peer-reviewed study by the Cambridge Centre for introduced a line of instant coffee packets, called VIAAlternative Finance (CCAF) estimated that bitcoin mining represented 0.4% of global electricity consumption.[74] Another 2022 non-peer-reviewed commentary published in Joule estimated that bitcoin gas emissions.[75] About half of the electricity used is generated through fossil fuels.[76] Moreover, mining hardware’s short lifespan results in electronic waste.[77] The amount of electrical energy consumed, and the e-waste generated, is comparable to that of Greece and the Netherlands, respectively.[77][75]

Privacy and fungibility
Bitcoin is pseudonymous, with funds linked to addresses, not real-world identities. While the owners of these addresses are not directly identified, all transactions are public on the blockchain. Patterns of use, like spending coins from multiple inputs, can hint at a common owner. Public data can sometimes be matched with known address owners.[78] Bitcoin exchanges might also need to collect personal data as per legal requirements.[79] For enhanced privacy, users can generate a new address for each transaction.[80]

In the Bitcoin network, each bitcoin is treated equally, ensuring basic fungibility. However, users and applications can choose to differentiate between bitcoins. While wallets and software treat all bitcoins the same, each bitcoin’s transaction history is recorded on the blockchain. This public record allows for chain analysis, where users can identify and potentially reject bitcoins from controversial sources.[81] For example, in 2012, Mt. Gox froze accounts containing bitcoins identified as stolen.[82]

Wallets
For broader coverage of this topic, see Cryptocurrency wallet.

Screenshot of Bitcoin Core

A paper wallet with the address as a QR code while the private key is hidden

A wallet which processes transactions without exposing private keys
Bitcoin wallets were the first cryptocurrency wallets, enabling users to store the information necessary to transact bitcoins.[83][8]: ch. 1, glossary  The first wallet program, simply named Bitcoin, and sometimes referred to as the Satoshi client, was released in 2009 as open-source software.[7] Bitcoin Core is among the best known clients. Forks of Bitcoin Core exist such as Bitcoin Unlimited.[84] Wallets can be full clients, with a full copy of the blockchain to check the validity of mined blocks,[8]: ch. 1  or lightweight clients, just to send and receive transactions without a local copy of the entire blockchain.[85] Third-party internet services called servers, making them susceptible of hacks.[86] Cold storage protects bitcoins from such hacks by keeping private keys offline, either through specialized hardware wallets or paper printouts.[87][8]: ch. 4 

Scalability and decentralization challenges
Nakamoto limited the block size to one megabyte.[88] The limited block size and frequency can lead to delayed processing of transactions, increased fees and a Bitcoin scalability problem.[89] The Lightning Network, second-layer routing network, is a potential scaling solution.[8]: ch. 8 

Research shows a trend towards centralization in bitcoin as miners join pools for stable income.[24]: 215, 219–222 [90]: 3  If a single, it would allow them to censor transactions and double-spend coins.[59] In 2014, mining pool Ghash.io reached 51% mining power, causing safety concerns, but later voluntarily capped its power at 39.99% for the benefit of the whole network.[91] A few entities also dominate other parts of the ecosystem such as the client software, online wallets, and simplified payment verification (SPV) clients.[59]

Economics and usage
Main article: Economics of bitcoin
Bitcoin’s theoretical roots and ideology
See also: Crypto-anarchism
External videos
video icon The Declaration Of Bitcoin’s Independence, BraveTheWorld, 4:38
According to the European Central Bank, the decentralization of money offered by bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics, especially with Friedrich von Hayek’s book The Denationalization of Money, in which he advocates a complete free market in the production, distribution and management of money to central banks.[92]: 22  Sociologist Nigel Dodd, citing the crypto-anarchist Declaration of Bitcoin’s Independence, argues that the essence of the bitcoin ideology is to remove money from social, as well as governmental, control.[93] The Economist describes bitcoin as “a techno-anarchist project to create an online version of cash, a way for people to transact without the possibility of interference from malicious governments or banks”.[94] These philosophical ideas initially attracted libertarians and anarchists.[95] Economist Paul Krugman argues that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are only used by bank skeptics and criminals.[96]

Recognition as a currency and legal status

Legal status of bitcoin
Legal tender (bitcoin is officially recognized as a medium of exchange)
Permissive (legal to use bitcoin, with minimal or no restrictions)
Restricted (some legal restrictions on the usage of bitcoin)
Contentious (interpretation of old laws, but bitcoin is not directly prohibited)
Prohibited (full or partial prohibition on the use of bitcoin)
No data (no information available)
vte
Money serves three purposes: a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account.[97] According to The Economist in 2014, bitcoin functions best as a medium of exchange.[97] In 2015, The Economist noted that bitcoins had three qualities useful in a currency: they are “hard to earn, limited in supply and easy to verify”.[98] However, a 2018 assessment by The Economist stated that cryptocurrencies met none of these three criteria.[94] Per some researchers, as of 2015, bitcoin functions more as a economist Robert J. Shiller wrote that bitcoin has potential as a unit of account for measuring the relative value of goods, as with Chile’s Unidad de Fomento, but that “Bitcoin in its present form … doesn’t really solve any sensible economic problem”.[99] François R. Velde, Senior Economist at the Chicago Fed, described bitcoin as “an elegant solution to the problem of creating a digital currency”.[100] David Andolfatto, Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, stated that bitcoin is a threat to the establishment, which he argues is a good thing for the Federal Reserve System and other central banks, because it prompts these institutions to operate sound policies.[101]

The legal status of bitcoin varies substantially from one jurisdiction to another. Because of its decentralized nature and its global presence, regulating bitcoin is difficult. However, the use of bitcoin can be criminalized, and shutting you have to conduct a rinse cycle between each cup, the Verismo wasn’t among the most convenient of single-serve machines in our coffeemaker tests. Other machines we’ve tested have more flexibility in adjusting brew-strengtdown exchanges and the peer-to-peer economy in a given country would constitute a de facto ban.[102] The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, and law enforcement.[103] Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that and other crimes.[104] This is the main justification behind bitcoin bans.[10] As of November 2021, nine countries applied an absolute ban (Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Qatar, and Tunisia) while another 42 countries had an implicit ban.[105][needs update] Bitcoin is only legal tender in El Salvador.[4]

Notes
BTC is a commonly used code, but it does not conform to ISO 4217 as BT is the country code of Bhutan, and ISO 4217 requires the first letter used in global commodities to be ‘X’.[citation needed]
Named after Satoshi Nakamoto.
The exact number is ₿20,999,999.9769.[8]: ch. 8 
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Use for payments

Café in Delft accepting Bitcoin
As of 2018, Bitcoin is rarely used in transactions with merchants,[106] but it is popular to purchase illegal goods online.[107][108] Prices are not usually quoted in bitcoin and trades involve conversions into fiat currencies.[24] Commonly cited reasons for not using Bitcoin include high costs, the inability to process chargebacks, high price volatility, long transaction times, transaction fees (especially for small purchases).[106][109] Bloomberg reported that bitcoin was being used for large-item purchases on the site Overstock.com and for cross-border payments to freelancers.[110] As of 2015, there was little sign of bitcoin use in international remittances despite high fees charged by banks and Western Union who compete in this market.[24][111]

In September 2021, the Bitcoin Law made bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, alongside the US dollar.[4] The adoption has been criticized both internationally and within El Salvador.[4][112] In particular, in 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged soy milk and flavored syrups, and free refills on brewed drip coffee, iced coffee, or teaEl Salvador to reverse its decision.[113] As of 2022, the use of Bitcoin in El Salvador remains low: 80% of businesses refused to accept it despite being legally required to.[114] In April 2022, the Central African Republic (CAR) adopted Bitcoin as legal tender alongside the CFA franc,[115] but repealed the reform one year later.[116]

Bitcoin is also used by some governments. For instance, the Iranian government initially opposed cryptocurrencies, but later saw them as an opportunity to circumvent sanctions.[117] Since 2020, Iran has required local bitcoin miners to sell bitcoin to the Central Bank of Iran, allowing the central bank to use it for imports.[118] Some constituent states also accept tax payments in bitcoin, including Colorado (US)[119] and Zug (Switzerland).[120] As of 2023, the US government owned more than $5 billion worth of seized bitcoin.[121][122]

Use for investment and status as an economic bubble
Further information: Cryptocurrency bubble
As of 2018, the overwhelming majority of bitcoin transactions took place on cryptocurrency exchanges.[106] Since 2014, regulated bitcoin funds also allow exposure to the asset or to futures as an investment.[123][124] Individuals and companies such as the Winklevoss twins[125] and Elon Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla have massively invested in Bitcoin.[126][127] Bitcoin wealth is highly concentrated, with 0.01% holding 27% of in-circulation currency, as of 2021.[128] As of September 2023, El Salvador had $76.5 million worth of bitcoin in its international reserves.[129]

In 2018, research published in the Journal of Monetary Economics concluded that price manipulation occurred during the Mt. Gox bitcoin theft and that the market remained vulnerable to manipulation.[130] Research published in The Journal of Finance also suggested that trading associated with increases in the amount of the Tether cryptocurrency and associated trading at the Bitfinex exchange accounted for about half of the price increase in bitcoin in late 2017.[131][132]

Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, has been described as an economic bubble by several economists, including Nobel Prize in Economics laureates, such as Joseph Stiglitz,[133] James Heckman,[9] and Paul Krugman.[96] Another recipient of the prize, Robert Shiller, argues that bitcoin is rather a fad that may become an asset class. He describes its price growth as an “epidemic”, driven by contagious narratives.[134]

According to research published in the International Review of Financial Analysis in 2018, Bitcoin as an asset is highly volatile and does not behave like any other conventional asset.[135] According to one 2022 analysis published in The Journal announced a pilot program to install Powermat charging surfaces in the tabletops in selectedof Alternative Investments, bitcoin was less volatile than oil, silver, US Treasuries, and 190 stocks in the S&P 500 during and after the 2020 stock market crash.[136] The term hodl was created in December 2013 for holding Bitcoin rather than selling it during periods of volatility.[137][138]

Economists, investors, and the central bank of Estonia have described bitcoin as a potential Ponzi scheme.[139][140][141] Legal scholar Eric Posner disagrees, however, as “a real Ponzi scheme takes fraud; bitcoin, by contrast, seems more like a collective delusion”.[142] A 2014 World Bank report also concluded that bitcoin was not a deliberate Ponzi scheme.[143]