What Is Bitcoin (BTC)?

Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency that was originally described in the 2008 whitepaper by a person or group of people using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. It was launched shortly thereafter, in January 2009. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer online currency, meaning that all transactions take place directly between equatable, open and transparent network participants, without the need for any intermediary to allow them. Bitcoin was created, in Nakamoto's own words, to allow "online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution." BTC precedes some concepts for a similar type of decentralized electronic currency, but Bitcoin holds the distinction of being the first cryptocurrency ever to be used.