Peter Todd has gone underground after an HBO documentary named him as the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has long remained a mystery.
You know the blockchain, right? Basically, whenever anyone trades a bitcoin, that transaction is recorded on the blockchain. And there’s a bunch of math work that goes into recording each transaction. When people do this math work, they get rewarded with a tiny bit of a bitcoin. This is what mining is. So then you have some bitcoin. And some other people accept bitcoin for goods and services.
Bitcoin itself is a virtual currency, just like Runescape gold or the dollars in your online bank account. It’s just numbers on a computer. The blockchain part is what makes it different.
Now don’t get me wrong, for the majority of applications this is overkill and not at all useful. Bitcoin and blockchains are solutions looking for a problem.
You know the blockchain, right? Basically, whenever anyone trades a bitcoin, that transaction is recorded on the blockchain. And there’s a bunch of math work that goes into recording each transaction. When people do this math work, they get rewarded with a tiny bit of a bitcoin. This is what mining is. So then you have some bitcoin. And some other people accept bitcoin for goods and services.
Bitcoin itself is a virtual currency, just like Runescape gold or the dollars in your online bank account. It’s just numbers on a computer. The blockchain part is what makes it different.
Now don’t get me wrong, for the majority of applications this is overkill and not at all useful. Bitcoin and blockchains are solutions looking for a problem.