What Is Bitcoin and Why Does It Matter?
- The Bitcoin Education Foundation
- May 3
- 2 min read
Bitcoin is a digital form of money that operates outside the traditional banking system. It was created in 2009 by a mysterious person (or group) known as Satoshi Nakamoto, in response to the failures of traditional money and the 2008 financial crisis.
Unlike the dollars in your wallet or the balance in your bank account, Bitcoin isn’t printed by a government or stored in a single place. It runs on a technology called blockchain, which is a public, decentralized ledger that anyone can access — but no one can control.
Why Bitcoin?
Bitcoin solves many of the problems we explored in previous lessons:
Limited Supply: Only 21 million Bitcoins will ever exist. This fixed supply makes it different from fiat currencies, which governments can print endlessly — often causing inflation.
Decentralization: There’s no single authority, company, or government that controls Bitcoin. It operates through a network of computers (called nodes) all over the world.
Transparency and Security: Every transaction is recorded on the blockchain, which is public and tamper-resistant.
Global Access: Bitcoin can be sent or received by anyone with an internet connection — even in areas without a stable banking system.
How Does Bitcoin Work?
Bitcoin transactions are verified and added to the blockchain through a process called mining. Miners use powerful computers to solve mathematical puzzles that keep the network secure and process transactions.
Every 10 minutes, a new block of transactions is added to the blockchain. As a reward, the miner who solves the puzzle first receives newly created Bitcoins — until the maximum supply is reached.
Why Should We Learn About Bitcoin?
Whether or not you use Bitcoin, understanding it gives you insight into how money is evolving. Bitcoin represents:
A new way to store and transfer value
A tool for financial freedom and privacy
A challenge to traditional systems of money and power
It’s also inspiring new forms of technology, entrepreneurship, and even social change.
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