4 Things The Bitcoin Whitepaper Says About Bitcoin

Satoshi Nakamoto first published the Bitcoin Whitepaper on the 31st of October, 2008. It is a nine-page document that was launched to a cryptography mailing list through Metzdowd.com. The Bitcoin Whitepaper serves as a proposed solution to the flaws of the traditional payment system. Some of these flaws include non-reversible transactions, fraudulent transactions, and the need for third parties i.e the banks.

Here are the 4 things about bitcoin we thought to share as seen on the Bitcoin Whitepaper:

Bitcoin as a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

Bitcoin was introduced as an entirely peer-to-peer (P2P) version of an electronic cash system that allows online transactions between only two individuals without the interference of a financial institution.

This E-cash system was set to take out the need to have a trusted third party and to have a system that is based on cryptographic proof which allows any two interested parties to have a direct transaction just between themselves. Hence, protecting the two parties from fraud and non-reversible transactions.

Bitcoin as the Solution to the Double-Spending Problem

The issue of double-spending is the only edge that cash had over digital currency. Double-spending occurs when the blockchain is altered and allows a unit of digital currency to be spent twice. In the Bitcoin Whitepaper, Satoshi proposed a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server to generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions.

The Bitcoin Network is Safe

There are hundreds and thousands of nodes situated in different countries all over the world. A node, in this case, is a computer system connected to the Bitcoin network. For every transaction, each node receives a broadcast and works on finding a scrutinized proof-of-work for the transaction's block. This makes it almost impossible for attacker nodes to defraud numerous computers at the same time, all at once.

Conditions for Bitcoin Network

Bitcoin is a decentralized system that needs to tick some boxes for it to work. These conditions include:

• There must be cooperation between the two parties using the network.
• The record must not change
• There must be an agreement on the validity of the transactions

However, there has been no technical update to the Bitcoin Network since the Bitcoin Whitepaper debuted in 2008, but it has experienced changes in its use over the years. One of the major changes to bitcoin is the use of the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network aims at speeding up bitcoin transactions without the need for an intermediary (the bank).

To use the lightning network to receive and send bitcoin, you can use a lightning address, which looks like your email address, and you can use the lightning invoice to receive transactions on the lightning network.

On the Bitnob app, the lightning address feature is available for you to send and receive bitcoin in the twinkle of an eye. Click here to learn more about the lightning address feature on Bitnob.

Would you like to try the lightning network? Get started here.