Half of bitcoin
The total number of bitcoins is 21 million
in 2009, when bitcoin was born, block reward was 50 bitcoins. Ten minutes after its birth, the first 50 bitcoins were generated, and the total amount of money at this time is 50. Then bitcoin grew at a rate of about 50 every 10 minutes. When the total amount reaches 10.5 million (50% of 21 million), the block reward will be halved to 25
when the total amount reaches 15.75 million (5.25 million new output, i.e. 50% of 1050), the block reward will be further halved to 12.5. The monetary system used to have no more than 10.5 million in four years, after which the total number will be permanently limited to about 21 million
extended data
monetary characteristics
1. Decentralization: bitcoin is the first distributed virtual currency, and the whole network is composed of users without a central bank. Decentralization is the guarantee of bitcoin's security and freedom
2. Global circulation: bitcoin can be managed on any computer connected to the Internet. No matter where you are, anyone can dig, buy, sell or collect bitcoin
3. Exclusive ownership: private key is needed to control bitcoin, which can be stored in any storage medium in isolation. No one can get it except the user himself
4. Low transaction cost: bitcoin can be remitted free of charge, but a transaction fee of about 1 bitfen will be charged for each transaction to ensure faster transaction execution
5, no hidden cost: as a means of payment from a to B, bitcoin has no cumbersome limit of quota and proceres. If you know the other party's bitcoin address, you can pay
6. Cross platform mining: users can explore the computing power of different hardware on many platforms
{rrrrrrr}
bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency with a total amount of 21 million. It has the characteristics of decentralization, globalization and anonymity, just like the Internet. It means that transferring bitcoin to the other end of the earth is as simple as sending e-mail, low-cost and unlimited. Bitcoin is also used in cross-border trade, payment, remittance and other fields
the liquidity and limitation of bitcoin determine that bitcoin can act as a monetary function equivalent to general equivalent, or as a measure of money, but this measure is not a physical measure like gold, but a digital proct
related concepts:
1. Address
the address of bitcoin world looks like this. The address itself is just a string of codes, just like your bank account number 321 million 3288372, which is used to mark an account. Everyone can have countless addresses. The address is public
2. The bank records how much money there is in the bank account
the amount of money in the bitcoin address is recorded by the whole bitcoin network. Each complete bitcoin data will record how many bitcoins are stored in this address
each node participating in the bitcoin network can save a complete of bitcoin data, and everyone has a backup on hand to prevent counterfeiting
3. The key (private key)
the key is another string of characters you only know. The key is used to operate the money in the bitcoin address. Key and address are the relationship between a key and a lock. Each address has only one password, and each password also operates a bitcoin address
with the key, you can control the money in the bitcoin address and pay to anyone. The key should be absolutely safe. The lost or deleted key can never be found, and the money in the corresponding bitcoin address can never be used
the key needs to be kept absolutely secret. Anyone who knows the key can steal all your bitcoin
4. Wallet
the transaction process of bitcoin will involve a lot of complex calculations. In order to simplify the operation, we have made wallets. The wallet has client software on the computer, and also has an online web version. The function of the wallet is to pay with a little touch, and the complicated calculation behind it is left to the wallet to complete
5. Security
if you use the computer client software, you can recommend multibit or bitcoin QT. Both are official software recommendations for the bitcoin community. The installation of these two softwares must be downloaded directly from the official website, and the check code must be checked before and after downloading. This is to prevent someone from tampering with wallet software and stealing keys
6. Mining
about every 10 minutes, some new bitcoin will appear in the bitcoin network, which can be imagined as throwing money in the sky. Whose pocket these scattered money fall into mainly depends on whose computer calculates fast. The faster you calculate, the more likely you are to find the money. Mining is to use the computer to calculate, to pick up the money< br />
The capacity of a block in bitcoin is 1m (megabytes). A transaction is between 250 and 500 bytes
according to this algorithm, a block contains about 4194.3 transactions
the confirmation time of a block in bitcoin is 10 minutes, so the seven transactions that a block can process per second may sometimes be less than seven
What are the consequences The bifurcations of
bitcoin are divided into hard bifurcations and soft bifurcations
hard fork means that when the block format or transaction format of bitcoin changes, the UN upgraded nodes refuse to verify the blocks proced by the upgraded nodes
the upgraded nodes can verify the blocks proced by the non upgraded nodes, and they continue the chain they think is correct, so they are divided into two chains
What is soft bifurcationsoft bifurcation means that when the data structure of bitcoin transaction changes,
UN upgraded nodes can verify the blocks proced by upgraded nodes,
and upgraded nodes can also verify the blocks proced by UN upgraded nodes
Bitcoin, English name bitcoin, is a digital currency based on blockchain technology, which is composed of a series of computer-generated complex codes. Like RMB's ￥ and US dollar's $, bitcoin has its own symbol, the "B" in the figure below
The inventor of
bitcoin is Nakamoto. Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of bitcoin protocol and its related software bitcoin QT. In 2008, he published a paper called "bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system", describing an electronic currency and its algorithm that he called "bitcoin"
In 2009, he released the first bitcoin software and officially launched the bitcoin financial system In 2010, he graally faded out and handed over the project to other members of the bitcoin communityNakamoto is believed to hold about one million bitcoins. If the price of each bitcoin was $2W, it was worth $20 billion at one time. So far, his true identity is still unknown to the outside world, that is to say, no one knows who Nakamoto is
bitcoin appeared after the global financial crisis in 2008. In fact, before that, many people have tried electronic currency, digital currency and virtual currency, but they have not succeeded. There are not only technical reasons, but also social environment and economic background reasons. To some extent, it was the 2008 financial crisis that gave birth to bitcoin
The concept of 21 million
bitcoin was first proposed by Nakamoto in 2009. According to Nakamoto's idea, open source software was designed and released, and P2P network was built on it. Bitcoin is a kind of P2P digital currency. Point to point transmission means a decentralized payment system
bitcoin is not issued in unlimited quantity, which is different from most currencies. Bitcoin does not rely on a specific currency issuer. But according to the specific algorithm, through a large number of calculations. Its circulation is controlled by software algorithms. The total number is 21 million
extended materials:
generation principle
starting from the essence of bitcoin, the essence of bitcoin is actually the special solution generated by a bunch of complex algorithms. A special solution is one of the infinite (in fact, bitcoin is finite) solutions that can be obtained from the equations. Every particular solution can solve the equation and is unique[ 10] In the metaphor of RMB, bitcoin is the serial number of RMB. If you know the serial number of a note, you have the note. The process of mining is to constantly seek the special solution of this equation system through a huge amount of calculation. This equation system is designed to have only 21 million special solutions, so the upper limit of bitcoin is 21 million
to mine bitcoin, you can download the special bitcoin computing tools, register various cooperation websites, fill the registered user name and password into the computing program, and then click the operation to officially start. After completing the installation of bitcoin client, you can directly obtain a bitcoin address. When others pay, you only need to paste the address to others, and you can pay through the same client. After installing the bitcoin client, it will distribute a private key and a public key. You need to back up your wallet data containing your private key to ensure that your property is not lost. Unfortunately, if the hard disk is completely formatted, personal bitcoin will be completely lost
the original version of bitcoin was carefully arranged by Nakamoto, and has always been very clear. The debate is about growth. In 2008, he answered the first question about the design of bitcoin, saying:
visa processed 37 billion transactions in fiscal year 2008, or an average of 100 million transactions per day. So many deals require 100GB of bandwidth = 12 DVDs or 2 HD quality movies = about $18 of bandwidth at the current price
assuming that the bitcoin network reaches this size, it will take several years. By then, sending two HD movies over the Internet may not be a big deal
at that time, he was more tired of bitcoin expansion than any of us. His plan is to make bitcoin popular from the beginning, and he knows that this success will change how people use his system. In 2010, he said, "it's good that we keep [blockchain] files as small as possible
the final solution will not care how big it (blockchain file) becomes
but now, keep it small while it's still small, and the growth of new users will be faster. When I finally implement client only mode, it's no longer a problem
"
in 2011, through a series of calculations, I expanded the expansion intuition of Nakamoto in detail: if bitcoin becomes so popular, will it completely replace visa? The answer is that his plan is credible - you don't need anything else but a computer, even if there's so much traffic. Before he left, I also implemented the model he talked about
it was Nakamoto's plan that brought us together. It has changed the lives of thousands of people around the world. Some of us give up our jobs, others devote their spare time to the project, others set up companies and even travel around the world. This is an idea that ordinary people can complete mutual payment through blockchain and create this global community
that's the vision I signed, and that's the vision Gavin Andresen signed, and that's the vision signed by millions of developers, founders of startups, evangelists, and users around the world
and this vision is now in danger. In recent months, it's clear that a small group of people have completely different plans for bitcoin. These people have never really understood Nakamoto's intention because they are worried about success, if the technology has never been improved, if people can't run bitcoin on their home computers? Doesn't this make bitcoin move away from centralization and more like banking? What if people start to rely on bitcoin, even if it's imperfect
now, Nakamoto has chosen to disappear, and they want to make a major change: substantially increase transaction costs, end support for mobile P2P wallets, give up unproven transactions, and many things that have never been found in the project's founding documents
the so-called lightning network, which is about to be promoted as a substitute for Nakamoto's design, does not exist. The white paper describes that it was announced earlier this year, and if it can be realized, it will be a huge departure from the bitcoin we know and love. Pick one of the many differences, and a bitcoin address won't work. What they will be replaced with has not yet been worked out (because no one knows). There are many other surprising pitfalls that I mentioned in another article. What will it eventually proce to make our existing bitcoin network better? It is still extremely unclear.