bitcoin
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɪtkɔɪn/
ipa: /ˈbɪtˌkɔɪn/
ipa: [ˈb̥ɪt̚ˌkɔɪ̯n]
ipa: [ˈb̥ɪʔˌkɔɪ̯n]
Forms: form: Bitcoin
form: BitCoin
Etymology: From bit (“binary digit”) + coin, coined by Satoshi Nakamoto, believed to be a pseudonym for one or more people, in the domain name bitcoin.org registered on 18 August 2008; and in the title of the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, a link to which was posted on the cryptography mailing list metzdowd.com on 31 October 2008: see the quotation.
Senses: examples: text: We do not accept bitcoin at this store.
text: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System [title] […] What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. […] In this paper, we propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server to generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions.
ref: 2008 October 31, Satoshi Nakamoto [pseudonym], “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, in Bitcoin.org, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2025:
text: [A] man named Satoshi Nakamoto posted a research paper to an obscure cryptography listserv describing his design for a new digital currency that he called bitcoin.
ref: 2011 November 23, Benjamin Wallace, “The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2025:
text: [Bitcoins] do not depend on the state banks, but are created through mining. Mining is also called as hashing. It is a process of solving complex math problems using those computers which run bitcoin software.
ref: 2014, Dale Blake, “Getting and Selling Bitcoins”, in Bitcoin Guide for Beginners: Bitcoin Trading and Mining Made Easy, La Vergne, Tenn.: Mihails Konoplovs, →ISBN:
text: Other e-commerce sites that accept bitcoin are: Bitcoinshop.us which offers products like watches and air conditioners and ships to people within the United States; […] Travel booking websites also start to accept bitcoin sales on flights, hotel bookings to at least 200,000 hotels and railway Amtrak through their platforms.
ref: 2015, Scott Green, “Bitcoin Growth and Trends”, in Bitcoin: The Ultimate A–Z of Profitable Bitcoin Trading & Mining Guide Exposed! (The Blokehead Series), Milan: Scott Green, →ISBN:
text: Individual bitcoin users are not the only driving force in terms of securing the bitcoin network. Over the past few years, dedicated bitcoin nodes have been added to the network with the sole purpose of receiving and broadcasting new bitcoin transactions to other users and nodes on the network.
ref: 2016, Prypto [pseudonym], “Bitcoin Security”, in Bitcoin for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part III (Using Bitcoin in Business), page 137:
text: Find a friend who has bitcoin and buy some from him or her directly. Many bitcoin users start this way. This method is the least complicated. One way to meet people with bitcoin is to attend a local bitcoin meetup listed at Meetup.com (https://meetup.com).
ref: 2017 June, Andreas M[arkos] Antonopoulos, “Introduction”, in Tim McGovern, editor, Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain, 2nd edition, Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 11:
topics: business
computing
engineering
finance
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
hypernyms: cryptocurrency
glosses: A decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain technology.