Getting to know $BTC more deeply ...
Bitcoin (BTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that serves as a medium of exchange separate from any central authority. BTC can be transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable, and permanent manner.
Launched in 2009, BTC is the first virtual currency to solve the double-spending problem by timestamping transactions before broadcasting them to all nodes in the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin protocol offers a solution to the Byzantine Generals' Problem with its blockchain network structure, a concept first created by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991.
The Bitcoin whitepaper was published under a pseudonym in 2008 by an individual or group of individuals using the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto," a name whose original identity remains unverified.
The Bitcoin protocol uses a SHA-256d-based Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm to achieve network consensus. Its network has a block time target of 10 minutes and a maximum supply of 21 million tokens with a decreasing token emission rate. To prevent block time fluctuations, the network's block difficulty is adjusted based on the block time of the past 2016 blocks.
With a block size limit capped at 1 megabyte, the Bitcoin Protocol has supported the Lightning Network, which is a second-layer infrastructure for payment channels, and Segregated Witness, which is a soft fork to increase the number of transactions in a block, as a solution for network scalability.