Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. However, it is a currency not controlled by a central source. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by people, and increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems. It is the first example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency.
Blockchain-Technologie verändert Kapital + Gesellschaft | Innovation
Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the block chain network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system.
The series features Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times reporter and the author of the book on which the series is based, along with several bitcoin developers, influencers and scholars tracing the history of bitcoin and analyzing its future.
Episode 1 seeks to explain the blockchain, the technology that allows bitcoins to be transferred between entities, and the motives behind its creators. The episode also examines the platform’s future and how it will be received by governments and big banks, the very institutions its creators were trying to sidestep — or even overturn. TechCrunch.com