Supply
- Max Supply: 21,000,000
- Already mined: 19,500,000
- Lost: 4,000,000
- Cold Storage: 80%
Bitcoin Trilemma
Refers to the fact that no blockchain has been able to optimise three qualities simultaneously: decentralisation, security, and scalability.
What is Bitcoin
Bitcoin can be many things, depending on who you ask or where you are in your Bitcoin journey.
- Peer2Peer Payment System
- Decentralized consensus mechanism (Proof of Work)
- The biggest computer (network) in the world
- A decentralized, indestructible, incorruptible, permissionless, trustless ledger (database), that finds consensus through incentives and Proof of Work
- The first digital, full consensus, distributed ledger that mankind has ever seen
- The first (digital) asset with absolute scarcity
- The Apex predator of money
- Financial Commodity
- The first ever digital bearer instrument, meaning that bytes of data can represent physical value
- Digital money AND payment system AND store of value
- Bitcoin fixes this
- Bitcoin can prevent war/violence, since you will not get the bitcoins after bombing your enemy. Less incentive for financial violence
- Access for "the Unbanked"
History
Total halving events: 32
All Coins Issued: December 22, 2137
First transaction: January 12, 2009 (Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney)
Mining
Miners transform energy into bitcoins. Literally.
1 Block every 10 minutes / 6 per hour / 144 per day (~ 900 BTC per day @ 6.25 BTC reward)
5-7 Tx per second (TPS)
https://mempool.space/Scarcity
Bitcoin is the first (digital) asset with absolute scarcity.
210,000 Blocks * ( 50 + 25 + 12.5 + 6.25 + 3.125 + …) = 21,000,000 Bitcoin
The block reward decreases geometrically over time.
Proof of Work (PoW) ties the physical world to the digital world.
Real energy is used to maintain the digital scarcity of bitcoin.
Denominations
What problems did Bitcoin solve?
Double spending problem
Byzantine Generals problem