This paper was first published inSimple explanation of blockchain community
Link to the original text:What is bitcoin? Easy to understandThe original text has been updated. Please read it
Maybe a thousand people have a thousand understandings of bitcoin. As an introduction to bitcoin, I try to introduce bitcoin in easy to understand language.
What is bitcoin and how it works.
What is bitcoin
Bitcoin is a digital currency based on distributed network.
Bitcoin system (bitcoin in broad sense) is the network system used to construct this digital currency, which is a distributed point-to-point network system.
This paper mainly explains the concept of bitcoin in a narrow sense.
What is digital currency
Keynes said in the theory of money that money can carry the general equivalent of debt and price. The essence of money is equivalent. It can be anything, such as a piece of paper or a number, as long as people recognize its value. As national credit currencies, the value of RMB and US dollar is endorsed by national sovereignty. Digital currency is a new type of currency that does not depend on credit and physical objects. Its value is determined by consensus. Bitcoin is a digital currency. (in terms of the amount of online banking, WeChat and Alipay, it is precisely the digitalization of credit money, not the digital currency, but the central bank is also studying bitcoin, ready to issue digital currency).
Operating principle
As we all know, the property corresponding to our ID is recorded in the database of the banking system, which is called the account book below. For example, Zhang San’s card was transferred to 1W on October 1st, and the balance was 10W.
The bitcoin system also has such an account book. Different banks are responsible for recording by a single organization. The bookkeeping of bitcoin is jointly recorded by all the people running the system (i.e. nodes, which can be simply understood as a computer). Each node keeps (synchronizes) a complete account book.
At the same time, the principle of simple majority is used to ensure the consistency of account books. For example, if someone changes his balance from 10000 to 1 million on his computer, his account book is inconsistent with that of most people, and it will be considered invalid by the bitcoin system.
Bitcoin uses blockchain technology to support the operation of the whole system. Interested students can read the following blogs in detail:
Advanced reading is also available:
Analysis of bitcoin network: a decentralized, point-to-point network architectureYou can learn more about bitcoin network.
Bitcoin block structure Merkle tree and simple payment verification analysisYou can learn more about how the block structure validates transactions.
Block chain-Learning blockchain systematically to create the best blockchain technology blog