Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a protocol which implements a highly

available, public, and decentralized ledger. In order to update the ledger, a user
must prove they control an entry in the ledger. The protocol specifies that the
entry indicates an amount of a token, bitcoin with a miniscule b. The user can
update the ledger, assigning some of their bitcoin to another entry in the ledger.
Because the token has characteristics of money,[10][11] it can be thought of as a
digital currency.

Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and

recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. The cryptocurrency was
invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi
Nakamoto.[12] The currency began use in 2009,[13] when its implementation was
released as open-source software.[7]: 
ch. 1  The word "bitcoin" was defined in a
white paper published on October 31, 2008.[3][14] It is a compound of the words bit
and coin.[15]

Bitcoin is legal in seven of the top ten world economies by GDP in 2022.[16][17]
The Library of Congress reports that, as of November 2021, nine countries have
fully banned bitcoin use, while a further forty-two have implicitly banned it.[18]
A few governments have used bitcoin in some capacity. El Salvador has adopted
Bitcoin as legal tender, although use by merchants remains low. Ukraine has
accepted cryptocurrency donations to fund the resistance to the 2022 Russian
invasion. Iran has used bitcoin to bypass sanctions. In the United States, there is
"no intention" to ban Bitcoin.[19]

Bitcoin has been described as an economic bubble by at least eight recipients of

the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.[20] The environmental impact of
bitcoin is significant.[citation needed] Its proof-of-work algorithm for bitcoin
mining is designed to be computationally difficult, which requires the consumption
of increasing quantities of electricity, the generation of which has contributed to
climate change.[21][22] According to the University of Cambridge, bitcoin has
emitted an estimated 200 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide since its launch.
[23]