Bitcoin refers to a payment network and cryptocurrency that uses public transaction logs. It began operations in 2009, based on a paper posted by a person claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin has no central authority like a bank, and all currency issuance and transactions are peer-to-peer. All transactions are recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain, which allows anyone to verify the integrity of transactions. This process of verifying and recording transactions is c...