Bitcoin
The first cryptocurrency, launched in 2009. It was designed so two people could pay each other online without a bank in the middle.
Bitcoin in more detail
Bitcoin was designed so two people could pay each other online without a bank in the middle. It appeared during the 2008 financial crisis.
Before Bitcoin, the only fix was a trusted middleman. A bank kept the one official record and refused any payment you could not cover. Earlier digital cash projects worked the same way. The best known, DigiCash, depended on a company and partner banks, and it went bankrupt in 1998.
On 31 October 2008, someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a nine-page paper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. It described how a network of strangers could agree on one record of payments with nobody in charge.
All 128 terms · Checked against the lesson's sources on 8 October 2026.
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