Case Study: Bitcoins

Cryptos has been the talk of the town for a very long time now and one that takes the spotlight is Bitcoin. Bitcoin was created in 2008 by anonymous individual or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

On August 18, 2008, the domain bitcoin.org was officially registered. Two months later, October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a link to a white paper titled as "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" on a cryptography mailing list. This paper addressed the limitations of traditional electronic cash systems, such as their reliance on third-party intermediaries (e.g., banks), which can result in fraud, high transaction fees, and slow processing times.

Bitcoin introduced a decentralized blockchain technology to secure transactions without the need for a central authority. Using a proof-of-work mechanism, the system ensures the integrity of the blockchain, making it nearly impossible to tamper with transaction records.

Key features of Bitcoin:

• Decentralization
• Peer-to-peer transactions
• Cryptographic security
• Transparency and verifiability

Bitcoin offers lower fees, faster transactions (especially internationally), and increased accessibility, despite challenges like volatility and limited adoption.

Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper was initially ignored by many academics, paved the way for the creation of the Bitcoin network on January 3, 2009. The first block of the Bitcoin blockchain, known as the genesis block, included a reference to a Times newspaper headline, symbolizing its critique of the traditional financial system. Nine days after the network's launch, Nakamoto sent the first Bitcoin transaction to cryptographer Hal Finney. Early supporters of Bitcoin included notable figures like Wei Dai and Nick Szabo. On May 22, 2010, the first recorded commercial Bitcoin transaction took place when Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, marking a pivotal moment in Bitcoin's history.

How does Bitcoin actually works?

Bitcoin functions as a decentralized digital currency system, relying on a revolutionary technology called the blockchain. Let's break down the key components and processes that enable Bitcoin to operate:

1. The Blockchain: A Distributed Ledger

• The blockchain is the foundation of Bitcoin. It acts as a public, distributed ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions.
• Imagine it as a giant, constantly updated spreadsheet duplicated across a network of computers, known as nodes.
• Each node maintains a copy of the blockchain, ensuring no single point of failure and making tampering extremely difficult.

2. Transactions: Chains of Digital Signatures

• Bitcoin transactions involve transferring ownership of bitcoins, the units of currency within the Bitcoin network.
• These transactions are chains of digital signatures.
• Each owner "signs" a transaction by combining a hash of the previous transaction, their public key, and the recipient's public key.
• This chain of signatures forms a clear record of ownership transfer.

3. Mining: Securing the Network and Adding Blocks

• Miners, specialized nodes in the network, play a crucial role in maintaining and securing the blockchain.
• They group new transactions into blocks and compete to add these blocks to the blockchain.
• This competition involves solving computationally intensive puzzles in a process known as proof-of-work.
• The first miner to solve the puzzle gets to add their block to the blockchain and receives a reward of newly created bitcoins and transaction fees.

4. Proof-of-Work: Ensuring Integrity and Preventing Double-Spending

• Proof-of-work is essential to Bitcoin's security and trustworthiness.
• It makes altering the blockchain extremely difficult because any change to a block would require redoing the proof-of-work for that block and all subsequent blocks.
• This would require immense computational power, making such attacks impractical.
• Proof-of-work also prevents double-spending, ensuring that a bitcoin can only be spent once.

5. Consensus: The Longest Chain Wins

• The Bitcoin network achieves consensus by relying on the longest blockchain.
• Since proof-of-work requires significant computational effort, the longest chain represents the most "work" done.
• Nodes agree to trust this longest chain as the accurate record of transactions.

6. Keys and Wallets: Managing Bitcoins

• Private keys are like passwords that grant access to your bitcoins.
• They are randomly generated and must be kept secret.
• Public keys are derived from private keys and are used to receive bitcoins.
• Bitcoin addresses are further derived from public keys and are what you share to receive bitcoins.
• Wallets are software or hardware that store your private keys and allow you to interact with the Bitcoin network to send and receive bitcoins.
• Maintaining control of your private keys, known as self-custody, is crucial for security.

7. Decentralization: A Key Feature

• Bitcoin operates without a central authority, like a bank or government.
• This decentralization is made possible by the distributed nature of the blockchain and the consensus mechanism through proof-of-work.
• Decentralization makes Bitcoin resistant to censorship and manipulation, as no single entity can control the network.

Summary of the Process:

1. A user initiates a transaction, broadcasting it to the network.
2. Miners gather these transactions and attempt to add them to the blockchain by solving proof-of-work puzzles.
3. The first miner to solve the puzzle adds their block, containing the transactions, to the blockchain.
4. The network validates the new block, ensuring its consistency with the existing blockchain.
5. The new block is added to the longest chain, becoming part of the permanent record of transactions.