Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, which means it is a digital and encrypted version of traditional money.
It was created in 2009 outside the financial system and is not subject to the supervision of central banks. Bitcoin does not have a single owner or issuer, nor does it have a physical representation in the form of currency symbols. Due to its digital nature, Bitcoin is essentially information about the ownership of monetary value, stored in a decentralized database, i.e., the blockchain.
With Bitcoin, the financial system does not need a trusted third party, such as banks, to securely execute value transfers. Bitcoin is for value transfer what email has become for information transfer, and the World Wide Web for image transfer. It is the next step in evolution.
