Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash network introduced in 2009. BTC is the native unit used by the Bitcoin protocol. Understanding the distinction between the network and its asset makes the rest of Bitcoin's design easier to follow.
What you'll understand
- The Bitcoin network consists of software clients, nodes, miners and users communicating under shared rules.
- Bitcoin uses proof of work.
- After a transaction enters a mined block, additional blocks can build on top of it.
- Bitcoin's issuance schedule and maximum supply are defined by protocol rules that network participants enforce through software.
Bitcoin is a network, BTC is the native asset
The Bitcoin network consists of software clients, nodes, miners and users communicating under shared rules. BTC is the unit recorded by that network. A wallet does not literally store coins inside a device; it manages cryptographic keys that can authorize transactions associated with addresses.
Because the protocol is open, independent developers can inspect implementations and users can choose which compatible software to run.
Proof of work and mining
Bitcoin uses proof of work. Miners assemble candidate blocks and repeatedly perform hashing work in an attempt to produce a block that satisfies the network's difficulty requirement. The mechanism makes block production costly and provides a measurable basis for choosing between competing histories.
Mining is different from staking. Bitcoin does not use proof of stake for its base-layer consensus.
Confirmations and settlement
After a transaction enters a mined block, additional blocks can build on top of it. People often describe this growing depth as confirmations. A confirmation is not a legal guarantee or a promise that a payment can never be reversed, but additional proof of work generally makes reorganizing the history more difficult.
Applications choose their own operational policies for how many confirmations they consider sufficient.
Supply rules and network changes
Bitcoin's issuance schedule and maximum supply are defined by protocol rules that network participants enforce through software. Changes to widely used rules require broad coordination because nodes can reject blocks that violate the rules they recognize.
That social and technical coordination is a key part of decentralized protocol governance.
The clearest way to understand this topic is to separate the protocol, the digital asset, the software interface and any third-party service. Each layer has different responsibilities, dependencies and risks.
