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Bitcoin Whitepaper - TLDR
A newcomer-friendly summary of the original Bitcoin whitepaper. Read this first, then open the full PDF when you want the details.
TLDR
- Bitcoin is electronic cash without a central authority.
- Transactions are grouped into blocks and chained together.
- Proof-of-work makes it expensive to rewrite history.
- Nodes follow the longest valid chain as the source of truth.
- Supply issuance is fixed and decreases over time.
- Incentives reward miners for securing the network.
Problem
Digital payments rely on trusted intermediaries. Bitcoin removes the need for that trust.
Solution
A public ledger with proof-of-work makes double spending economically impractical.
Outcome
A decentralized, predictable monetary system that anyone can verify.