There has been a lot of buzz about this thing called Bitcoin. Lately the Market Price of 1 Bitcoin has topped $4,000. Apparently a lot of people have made millions by buying and holding bitcoin. So I decided it was time to see what Bitcoin is all about.
Google searching "what is bitcoin" gives 115 million results plus this definition:
This doesn't really tell me too much. I already kind of guessed that. I tried reading a few of the 115 million hits.bitcoin noun -- a type of digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.
The few I looked at did not do a good job of explaining what bitcoin is or how it works. A lot of handwaving, IMO. Much of it was gobbled gook. A lot was about how to get started buying bitcoin. I want to know what it is and how it works. Not necessarily all the gory implementation details, but in simple terms, what is it, how does it work? I was still in the dark about exactly what bitcoin is.
But then I found that Khan Academy has a playlist of 9 videos about Bitcoin. It is under Economics & Finance / Finance and capital Markets / Money, banking and central banks / Bitcoin. Here are the videos:
Bitcoin: What is it?
Bitcoin: Overview
Bitcoin: Cryptographic hash functions
Bitcoin: Digital signatures
Bitcoin: Transaction records
Bitcoin: Proof of work
Bitcoin: Transaction block chains
Bitcoin: The money supply
Bitcoin: The security of transaction block chains
Here is a link to KhanAcademy bitcoin videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacadem ... ry=bitcoin
I also found a YouTube video from 3Blu1Brown that gives a simple description of how bitcoin works:
Ever wonder how Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) actually work?
So I will watch these and report back what I think about bitcoin.