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Bitcoin for the Befuddled
book

Bitcoin for the Befuddled

by Conrad Barski, Chris Wilmer
November 2014
Intermediate to advanced
256 pages
7h 12m
English
No Starch Press
Content preview from Bitcoin for the Befuddled

1

WHAT IS BITCOIN?

In the simplest terms, Bitcoin is just another currency. The term Bitcoin refers to the entire currency system, whereas bitcoins are the basic units of the currency.1 As with dollars, euros, yen, and gold coins, you can save bitcoins, spend them on goods and services, and exchange them for other currencies. However, Bitcoin is the world’s first currency that is both digital and decentralized.

A digital currency is one that can be easily stored and used on a computer. By this definition, even dollars can be considered a digital currency, since they can be easily sent to others or used to shop online, but their supply is controlled by a centralized bank organization. In contrast, gold coins are decentralized, meaning that no ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781457188343Errata