Bitcoin

Let’s look at the previous attempts to create digital currencies that made Bitcoin possible.

As the name suggests, the Lightning Network is a second-layer blockchain that sits on top of Bitcoin and helps make the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain faster by processing multiple transactions at once. First proposed in 2015, the Lightning Network…

Taproot makes it possible to process transactions in batches. This helps to improve Bitcoin’s network speed, privacy, security features, and scalability. 

A Schnorr signature is a type of digital signature used to verify and authorise transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Think of a digital signature as an electronic version of a physical signature that is virtually impossible to fake. It was…

Cryptocurrency investors argue that Bitcoin is the digital equivalent of investing in gold, in the sense that it is a hedge against inflation and turbulence in the financial markets. In other words, investors have long invested in gold as a…

A node is simply any computer that runs a copy of the Bitcoin software and is used to verify transactions on the blockchain.

We all go through the process of downloading and installing updates to our phones or laptops. Cryptocurrency also relies on similar updates and upgrades to improve its efficiency. However, while it may take just a few clicks or taps of…

A BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) is the document standard used for proposing changes to Bitcoin.  Proposals are usually first roughly outlined using a mailing list of developers, where feedback and their feasibility are assessed before a decision is made to…

Each Bitcoin is created through a process called mining and the people that mine cryptocurrencies are called miners. These miners use powerful, specialised computers to validate transactions on the Bitcoin network, also known as the Bitcoin blockchain. In return for…

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin blockchain is the ledger, or the spreadsheet, on which all the transactions that have ever been made with Bitcoin are recorded.

There are currently around 18.9 million Bitcoin in circulation, with a maximum supply of 21 million. The remaining couple of million Bitcoin are expected to be fully mined by 2140. You may be wondering why it will take over 100…

To mine Bitcoin, computers solve cryptographic puzzles to process and validate blocks and their transactions. However, as pointed out by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, the capability of computer hardware and processing power becomes more advanced over time. To solve this…