Bitcoin is a digital asset and a payment system invented by satoshi Nakamoto, who published investion in 2008 and released it as open source software in 2009.
The system is peet-to-peer; users can transact directly without needing an intermediary.
Transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blcok chain. The ledger uses bitcoin as its unit of account.
The system works without a central repository or single administrator, which has led the U.S. Treasury to categorize bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency.
