what is bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a payment system invented by an unidentified programmer, or group of programmers, under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was introduced on 31 October 2008

The system is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary.These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain.

Bitcoins are created as a reward in a competition in which users offer their computing power to verify and record bitcoin transactions into the blockchain. This activity is referred to as mining and successful miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins

In February 2015, the number of merchants accepting bitcoin for products and services passed 100,000.

In 2013 some mainstream websites began accepting bitcoins. WordPress had started in November 2012,followed by OKCupid in April 2013,TigerDirect and Overstock.com in January 2014,Expedia in June 2014, Newegg and Dell in July 2014,and Micros oft in December.