Bitcoin
The first and largest cryptocurrency: a peer-to-peer digital money that no single company, bank, or government can censor.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first successful cryptocurrency. Launched in 2009, it lets anyone send value directly to anyone else over the internet — without a bank, payment processor, or intermediary deciding who can take part.
How it works
Bitcoin runs on an open network of computers called nodes. Transactions are gathered into blocks by miners and confirmed roughly every ten minutes. Nobody owns Bitcoin; whoever runs a node helps enforce the rules together.
Why it matters to decentralization
Bitcoin set the template for every decentralized network that followed. In the W3D Terminal audits, Bitcoin consistently ranks highest on capital and governance decentralization — the network has no founder keys, no premine, and no layer that can turn it off.
Related terms
Blockchain, Proof of Work, Mining, Node, Halving, Self-Custody, Hash