There are points of Bitcoin which make it just like fiat forex, however it isn’t money. There are points just like gold, however it isn’t bullion. There are points just like securities, however it isn’t precisely a safety. The query of “What’s it?” is definitely rather more sophisticated than it seems. It exists solely as an entry in a distributed digital ledger; “having” Bitcoins actually means having authority to switch Bitcoins. No, the truth is, that is not even technically appropriate. It means having a level of authority measured in Bitcoins to switch that exact same authority. Attempt to wrap your mind round that. Going ahead, I am going to resort to referring to Bitcoins because the factor of worth which is transferred, however perceive that my doing so is solely shorthand to make this essay readable. Having Bitcoins is the authority to switch authority.
Thus, upon deciding to accumulate my first Bitcoin, step one was to find out easy methods to attain authority to switch Bitcoins. One might theoretically print out the cryptographic code of a Bitcoin and hand the paper to another person as a way of transferring the Bitcoin represented by the code, however how would that recipient know that the printout hadn’t been duplicated and already spent? For that matter, how would the recipient know that the printout even represented some worth in Bitcoin reasonably than merely a string of random characters? Transferring printouts of Bitcoin on paper may match (albeit inefficiently) between individuals who implicitly belief one another, comparable to for items between kin, however the genius of Bitcoin is the distributed however authoritative nature of its ledger, and for that to work, transactions must be uncovered to its community.