Simple meaning of bitcoin
Each user's Bitcoins are stored in a program called a digital wallet , which also holds each address the user sends and receives Bitcoins from, as well as a private key known only to the user. The Bitcoin network is designed to mathematically generate no more than 21 million Bitcoins and the network is set up to regulate itself to deal with inflation.
Bitcoins can be spent by initiating a transfer request from a Bitcoin address in the customer's wallet to a Bitcoin address in the vendor's wallet. In the United States, Bitcoins are controversial because they can be used to anonymously transfer illicit funds or hide unreported income from the Internal Revenue Service IRS.
Bitcoin policy now requires transactions that involve traditional, government-backed currencies to be attached to an identity.
By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. A smart contract, also known as a cryptocontract, is a computer program that directly controls the transfer of digital currencies A risk map, also known as a risk heat map, is a data visualization tool for communicating specific risks an organization faces.
An internal audit IA is an organizational initiative to monitor and analyze its own business operations in order to determine An evil maid attack is a security exploit that targets a computing device that has been shut down and left unattended.
In security, Common Body of Knowledge CBK is a comprehensive framework of all the relevant subjects a security professional A rootkit is a program or, more often, a collection of software tools that gives a threat actor remote access to and control over Value-based healthcare, also known as value-based care, is a payment model that rewards healthcare providers for providing Health informatics is the practice of acquiring, studying and managing health data and applying medical concepts in conjunction A clinical trial, also known as a clinical research study, is a protocol to evaluate the effects and efficacy of experimental Crisis communication is a method of corresponding with people and organizations during a disruptive event to provide them with Zerto is a storage software vendor that specializes in enterprise-class business continuity and disaster recovery in virtual and A crisis management plan CMP is a document that outlines the processes an organization will use to respond to a critical Red Hat OpenStack Platform is a commercially supported distribution of open source OpenStack software designed to build and Direct-attached storage DAS is computer storage that is connected to one computer and not accessible to other computers.
A hybrid hard disk drive is an electromechanical spinning hard disk that contains some amount of NAND Flash memory. This was last updated in June However, the difficulty of the math problem depends on how many people are mining for bitcoin at the moment. Because of how complicated the math problems usually are, they must be calculated with very powerful processors.
The process of generating the bitcoins is called mining. People who use these machines to mine bitcoins are called miners. Miners either compete with one another or work together in groups to solve a mathematical puzzle.
The first miner or group of miners to solve the particular puzzle are rewarded with new bitcoins. The puzzle is determined by the transactions being sent at the time and the previous puzzle solution.
This means the solution to one puzzle is always different from the puzzles before. Attempting to change an earlier transaction, maybe to fake bitcoins being sent or change the number of someone's bitcoins, requires solving that puzzle again, which takes a lot of work, and also requires solving each of the following puzzles, which takes even more work. This means a bitcoin cheater needs to outpace all the other bitcoin miners to change the bitcoin history.
This makes the bitcoin blockchain very safe to use. A popular image associated with Bitcoin is a QR code. QR codes are a group of black and white boxes that are similar to barcodes.
Barcodes have one dimension of information, while QR codes have two horizontal and vertical. Barcodes are a row of lines, and QR codes are a grid of squares. Bitcoin uses QR codes because they can store a lot of information in a small space, and a camera such as a smartphone can read them.
The two QR codes on the Bitcoin note are the public and private addresses, and can be scanned with a number of online tools. Everyone in the Bitcoin network is considered a peer, and all addresses are created equal. All transactions can take place solely from peer to peer, but a number of sites exist to make these transactions simpler. These sites are called exchanges.
Exchanges provide tools for dealing in Bitcoin. Some allow the purchase of Bitcoin from external accounts, and others allow trading with other cryptography-based currencies like Bitcoin. Most exchanges also provide a basic "wallet" service.
Wallets provide a handy way to keep track of all of a user's public and private addresses. Because addresses are pseudo-anonymous, anyone can have as many addresses as they want. This is useful for dealing with multiple people, but it can get complicated to manage multiple accounts. A wallet holds all of this information in a convenient place, just like a real wallet would.
A backup of a wallet prevents 'losing' the bitcoins. Bitcoin adoption and use continues to grow a lot every year. Since , Bitcoin has gained the attention of the mainstream media; one way is the WannaCry ransomware created in May Bitcoin has often been criticized for its unstable price, its network's high electricity consumption, and for its high transaction fees. Additionally, it has been criticized for having characteristics in common with Ponzi and pyramid schemes.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 9 March