BTC Price Live Data
Today’s live bitcoin price is $23645.48 with a 24-hour volume of $25755294129. We update the BTC to USD price in real time. Bitcoin is up 2.23% over the past 24 hours. Currently CoinMarketCap ranks first, with a real-time market value of $455805140676. it has a circulating supply 19276625 BTC coins and max. Supply 21000000 BTC coins.
 |
If you are wondering where you can buy bitcoin at the current exchange rate, the top cryptocurrency exchanges for bitcoin stock trading are currently Binance Deepcoin BTCEX BingX and Bybit. You can find others listed on our cryptocurrency exchanges page.
What Is Bitcoin (BTC)?
Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency originally described in a 2008 white paper by a person or group of people using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. It launched in January 2009.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer online currency, which means that all transactions occur directly between equal and independent network participants without the permission or facilitation of any intermediaries. Bitcoin was created in the words of Satoshi Nakamoto to make "online payment a Send directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. "
Some concepts of a similar type of decentralized electronic currency predate BTC, but Bitcoin is unique in that it was the first cryptocurrency ever to be put into practical use.
Who Are the Founders of Bitcoin?
The original inventor of Bitcoin is known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. As of 2021, the true identity of the person or organization behind the alias remains unknown.
On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin's white paper, which detailed how to implement a peer-to-peer online currency. They propose a decentralized transaction ledger that is packaged in batches (called "blocks") and secured by a cryptographic algorithm - The whole system was later called "Blockchain".
Just two months later, on January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block on the Bitcoin network, called the Genesis block, thereby launching the world's first cryptocurrency. When Bitcoin was first launched at $0, most Bitcoins are mined for a modest Powerful equipment (e.g. PC) and mining software. The first known commercial transaction for bitcoin occurred on May 22, 2010, when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas. At today's mid-September 2021 bitcoin prices, those pizzas would be worth a staggering $478 million. this The event is now being dubbed "Bitcoin Pizza Day." Bitcoin first started trading in July 2010, when bitcoin prices ranged from $0.0008 to $0.08.
However, while Satoshi Nakamoto was the original inventor of Bitcoin and the author of its first implementation, he handed over control of the network's alarm key and code repository to the man who would later become the lead developer of the Bitcoin Foundation. Gavin Andresen. Over the years, a large number of people Contributes to improving cryptocurrency software by patching bugs and adding new features.
The Bitcoin source code repository on GitHub lists more than 750 contributors, some of the main contributors being Wladimir J. van der Laan Marco Falke Pieter Wuille Gavin Andresen Jonas Schnelli and others.
What Makes Bitcoin Unique?
The most unique advantage of Bitcoin is that it was the first cryptocurrency to appear on the market.
It managed to create a global community and spawn a whole new industry of millions of enthusiasts who invest in trade and use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in their daily lives. The emergence of the first cryptocurrency creates a conceptual and technical basis This subsequently inspired the development of thousands of competing projects.
The entire cryptocurrency market—now worth more than $2 trillion—is based on the idea that Bitcoin enables: Anyone, anywhere in the world, can send and receive money without relying on trusted institutions such as banks and financial services companies. Agency.
Thanks to its pioneering nature, BTC remains at the top of this dynamic market after more than a decade of existence. Even after Bitcoin loses its undisputed dominance, it remains the largest cryptocurrency, with market capitalization surpassing the $1 trillion mark in 2021 following Bitcoin price gains An all-time high of $64,863.10 was reached on April 14, 2021. This is largely due to the growing institutional interest in Bitcoin and the ubiquity of platforms that offer use cases for BTC: wallet exchanges, payment services, online gaming, etc.
Related Pages:
Looking for market and blockchain data for BTC? Visit our block explorer.
Want to buy Bitcoin? Guidelines for using CoinMarketCap.
Want to track bitcoin prices in real time? Download the CoinMarketCap mobile app!
Want to convert today's bitcoin price to your desired fiat currency? Check out the CoinMarketCap exchange rate calculator.
Should you buy Bitcoin with PayPal?
What is wrapped Bitcoin?
Will Bitcoin volatility ever reduce?
How to use a Bitcoin ATM
How Much Bitcoin Is in Circulation?
The total supply of bitcoins is limited by its software and will never exceed 21 million coins. New coins are created in a process called "mining": as transactions pass through the network, they are picked up by miners and packaged into blocks, which in turn are mined. Complicated cryptographic calculations.
As compensation for spending their computing resources, miners are rewarded for each block they successfully add to the blockchain. At the moment Bitcoin launched, the reward was 50 bitcoins per block: every 210,000 new blocks were mined, this number was halved—this is The network will take about four years. As of 2020, the block reward has been halved threefold to include 6.25 bitcoins.
Bitcoin has not been pre-mined, meaning that no coins were mined and/or distributed among the founders before it became available to the public. However, during the first few years of BTC's existence, competition among miners was relatively low, allowing the earliest network Participants have amassed vast amounts of coins through regular mining: Satoshi Nakamoto alone is believed to own over a million bitcoins.
Depending on the current hash rate and the price of Bitcoin, mining Bitcoin can be very profitable for miners. While the process of mining bitcoin is complex, we discussed how long it takes to mine a bitcoin on CoinMarketCap Alexandria - as we wrote above, mining bitcoin is best understood as How long does it take to mine a block compared to mining one bitcoin. As of mid-September 2021, Bitcoin mining rewards will be capped at 6.25 BTC after the 2020 halving, which is about $299,200 at today’s Bitcoin prices.
How Is the Bitcoin Network Secured?
Bitcoin is secured using the SHA-256 algorithm, which belongs to the SHA-2 family of hash algorithms and is also used by its fork, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), as well as several other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Energy Consumption
Over the past few decades, consumers have become more curious about their energy consumption and their personal impact on climate change. When news stories began to circulate about the possible negative impact of Bitcoin’s energy consumption, many people began to pay attention to Bitcoin and criticize it energy use. A report found that each bitcoin transaction requires 1,173 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to "power the typical American home for six weeks." Another report calculated that Bitcoin requires more energy per year than the country of Finland uses per hour of energy per year. A country with a population of 5.5 million.
The news sparked commentary from tech entrepreneurs to environmental activists to political leaders. In May 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk even stated that Tesla would no longer accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment due to concerns about its environmental impact. Although many of them Some have condemned the problem and proposed solutions: How can we make Bitcoin more energy efficient? Others simply took a defensive stance, pointing out that Bitcoin’s energy concerns may be overblown.
Currently, miners rely heavily on renewable energy, and it is estimated that Bitcoin's use of renewable energy may be between 40-75%. However, on this point, critics claim that increasing Bitcoin’s use of renewable energy will deprive the solar resource Powering other sectors and industries such as hospitals, factories or homes. The Bitcoin mining community has also demonstrated that scaling mining can help build new solar and wind farms in the future.
Additionally, some Bitcoin defenders argue that gold and banking each consume twice as much energy as Bitcoin, making criticism of Bitcoin’s energy consumption impossible. Additionally, Bitcoin's energy consumption can be easily tracked and traced The same cannot be said for the other two sectors. Those who defend Bitcoin also note that the complex verification process creates a more secure transaction system that justifies energy use.
Another point that Bitcoin proponents make is that the energy use required by Bitcoin is all-encompassing, so it covers the process of creating a secure use and transfer of Bitcoin. This is not the case for other financial sectors. For example when calculating carbon With the footprint of a payment processing system like Visa, they can't account for the energy required to print money in payment processing and other components of the bank's supply chain, or to power ATMs or smartphones in bank branch security vehicles.
What exactly are governments and nonprofits doing to reduce Bitcoin’s energy consumption? A congressional hearing was held earlier this year in the US where politicians and tech figures discussed the future of cryptocurrency mining in the US, specifically highlighting their concerns about cryptocurrency mining fossil fuel consumption. Leaders also discussed the current debate surrounding the coal-to-crypto trend, particularly regarding the number of coal plants in New York and Pennsylvania that are being converted into mining farms.
Beyond congressional hearings, there are private sector crypto initiatives working on environmental issues, such as the Crypto Climate Protocol and the Bitcoin Mining Council. In fact, the cryptocurrency climate agreement proposes a plan to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, and due to Bitcoin's Innovative Potential There is reason to believe that such grandiose plans might come to fruition.
What is the role of Bitcoin as a store of value?
Bitcoin is the first decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency. One of its most important functions is that it is used as a decentralized store of value. In other words, it specifies ownership as a physical asset or unit of account. However, the store-of-value function of the latter has debate. Many crypto enthusiasts and economists believe that mass adoption of top currencies will usher in a new modern financial world where transaction amounts are denominated in smaller units.
Bitcoin's smallest units, 0.00000001 BTC, are called Satoshis (or Sats for short), in honor of their anonymous creator. At today's bitcoin price, 1 satoshi is equivalent to roughly $0.00048.
For many, the top cryptocurrency is considered a store of value rather than a currency. The idea of the first cryptocurrency being a store of value rather than a form of payment means many people buy cryptocurrencies and hold them long-term (or HODL) instead of spending them on things like you Usually it takes a dollar - think of it as digital gold.
Crypto Wallets
The most popular cryptocurrency wallets include hot and cold wallets. Cryptocurrency wallets are divided into hot wallets and cold wallets. Hot wallets are able to connect to the internet, while cold wallets are used to keep large amounts of coins off the internet.
Some of the top crypto cold wallets are Trezor Ledger and CoolBitX. Some of the top cryptocurrency hot wallets include Exodus Electrum and Mycelium.
Still not sure which wallet to use? Check out CoinMarketCap Alexandria's guides to the top cold wallets 2021 and the top hot wallets 2021.
How has Bitcoin's technology been upgraded?
A hard fork is a fundamental change to the protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid, thus requiring all users to upgrade. For example, if users A and B disagree on whether an incoming transaction is valid, a hard fork can make the transaction valid for users A and B But not User C.
A hard fork is a protocol upgrade that is not backward compatible. This means that each node (a computer connected to the Bitcoin network using a client that performs the task of validating and relaying transactions) needs to activate on a new blockchain with a hard fork and reject any Blocks or transactions from the old blockchain. The old blockchain will live on and will continue to accept transactions, although it may not be compatible with other newer bitcoin clients.
A soft fork is a change to the Bitcoin protocol where only previously valid blocks/transactions are invalidated. Soft forks are backwards compatible as old nodes will recognize the new block as valid. This fork only requires a majority of miners to upgrade to enforce the new rules.
Here are some examples of notable cryptocurrencies that have undergone hard forks: Bitcoin’s hard fork led to Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum’s hard fork led to Ethereum Classic.
Bitcoin Cash has been a hard fork since the original fork of Bitcoin SV. Learn more about the difference between Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV here.
What Is Taproot?
Taproot is a soft fork that bundles BIP 340 341 and 342 and aims to improve blockchain scalability efficiency and privacy by introducing several new features.
The two main changes are the introduction of Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST) and Schnorr signatures. MAST introduces a condition that allows both the sender and receiver of a transaction to sign off on its settlement. Schnorr Signature allows users to aggregate multiple signatures into One for a single transaction. This causes multisig transactions to look the same as regular or more complex transactions. By introducing this new address type, users can also save on transaction fees because even complex transactions look like simple single-signature transactions.
While HODLers may not notice a huge impact, Taproot could be a key milestone in equipping the network with smart contract capabilities. Schnorr signatures in particular will form the basis for building more complex applications on top of existing blockchains as users start Mainly switch to Taproot address. If adopted by users, in the long run, Taproot could lead to the network developing its own DeFi ecosystem, comparable to those on alternative blockchains such as Ethereum.
What Is the Lightning Network?
The Lightning Network is an off-chain layered payment protocol that runs two-way payment channels, allowing instant transfers and instant reconciliations. It enables private high-volume and trustless transactions between any two parties. Lightning Network Scaling Transactions capacity without incurring the costs associated with transactions and interventions on the underlying blockchain.
Who are the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin?
A few years ago, the idea that a public company might hold bitcoin on its balance sheet seemed ludicrous. The flagship cryptocurrency is considered too volatile to be adopted by any serious business. Many top investors, including Warren Buffett, call the asset a "bubble" Wait for it to pop up.
Since 2020, many corporate giants have bought Bitcoin and seem to break this negative sentiment. Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, in particular, set the pace after buying $425 million worth of bitcoin in August and September 2020. Since then, many other companies have followed suit The suit includes electric car maker Tesla.
MicroStrategy has by far the largest Bitcoin portfolio held by any public company. The business analytics platform has adopted bitcoin as its primary reserve asset and is actively buying the cryptocurrency through 2021 and 2022. As of August 30, 2022, the company owns 129,699 bitcoins Reserves equate to just over $2.5 billion.
Other top corporate holders include Marathon Digital Holdings with 10,054 BTC Coinbase (9000) Square Inc. (8027) and Hut 8 Mining Corp. (7078).
Is Bitcoin Political?
Bitcoin is becoming increasingly political, especially after El Salvador began accepting the currency as legal tender. The country's president, Nayib Boukle, announced and implemented the decision almost unilaterally, refuting criticism from his citizens, Bank of England, IMF Vitalik. Buterin and many others. Since the passage of the Bitcoin legal tender law in September 2021, Bukele has also announced plans to build Bitcoin City, which is entirely based on a city that mines Bitcoin using volcanic geothermal energy.
Mexico, Russia, and other countries are also rumored to be candidates for accepting bitcoin as legal tender, but so far, El Salvador is the only one.
On the other hand, countries like China have begun to crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading activities. In May 2021, the Chinese government declared all crypto-related transactions illegal. A crackdown on bitcoin mining operations followed, forcing many Crypto-related businesses flee to friendlier territories.
Surprisingly, the Chinese government's anti-encryption stance has done little to deter the industry. According to data from Cambridge University, China is now the second-largest contributor to Bitcoin’s global hash rate, after the United States.
How Much Is Bitcoin?
The current valuation of Bitcoin is constantly changing on a daily basis. It is truly a global asset. BTC started off at less than a penny per coin and rose thousands of percent in price to the numbers you see above. The prices of all cryptocurrencies are very volatile, which means that anyone's The understanding of Bitcoin's value changes by the minute. However, sometimes different countries and exchanges display different prices, and knowing the value of Bitcoin depends on one's location.
Where Can You Buy Bitcoin (BTC)?
Bitcoin is in many ways almost synonymous with cryptocurrency, which means you can buy Bitcoin on almost every cryptocurrency exchange — fiat and other cryptocurrencies. Some of the major markets where BTC can be traded are:
Binance
Coinbase Pro
OKEx
Kraken
Huobi Global
Bitfinex
If you're new to cryptocurrencies, use CoinMarketCap's own educational portal - Alexandria - to learn how to get started buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق