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Bitcoin (BTC)

A decentralized cryptocurrency and peer-to-peer electronic cash payment system developed in 2008 and introduced in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin does not rely on any central authority (i.e., bank) for transaction verification or currency issuance. Instead, it relies on miners to verify transactions who get rewarded by the issuance of new coins to the first to solve a mathematical/computational puzzle based on SHA256. The reward is halved every four years. All transactions are recorded on a blockchain, a global public ledger.