Читать книгу Cryptocurrency All-in-One For Dummies онлайн

133 страница из 200

Bitcoin was designed primarily to send the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. But very quickly, the creators realized that it had a much greater potential. With that in mind, they architected the blockchain of Bitcoin to be able to record more than the data concerning the movement of the token. The Bitcoin blockchain is the oldest, and one of the largest, blockchains in the world. It’s composed of thousands of nodes that are running the Bitcoin protocol. The protocol is creating and securing the blockchain.

Nodes safeguard the network by mining for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. New Bitcoins are created as a reward for processing transactions and recording them inside the blockchain. Nodes also earn a small fee for confirming transactions.

Anyone can run the Bitcoin protocol and mine for tokens. (Read more about cryptocurrency mining in ssss1.) It’s an open-source project that thrives as more individuals participate in the network. The fewer people who participate, the more centralized it becomes — and centralization weakens the system. The primary thing that makes Bitcoin a secure system is the large number of independent nodes that are globally distributed.