$BTC In short, Bitcoin is a digital form of money that operates on a decentralized network of computers (nodes). In a broader sense, however, many people often use the word Bitcoin to refer to several different things: digital currency, decentralized public ledger, protocol, or simply a large ecosystem that encompasses all of these elements. However, there are some fundamental differences between these functionalities.

First, Bitcoin is the name of the peer-to-peer (P2P) digital currency, which is sometimes referred to as bitcoin (with a lowercase 'b') or simply BTC. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, meaning it is a digital currency secured by cryptographic techniques. It was the first cryptocurrency to be created, and the first Bitcoin block - known as the genesis block (or block 0) - was mined on January 3, 2009.

Second, the decentralized public ledger of Bitcoin is what we call the blockchain. Despite the close relationship, Bitcoin and blockchain are different concepts. The blockchain technology maintains the entire structure that allows for the transmission and recording of Bitcoin transactions in a trustless and secure manner. It is worth noting that in this context, trustless means that the blockchain system does not rely on any kind of trust to operate, as it is supported by computer code and mathematical algorithms. Thus, the Bitcoin blockchain functions as a decentralized digital ledger that publicly records all confirmed BTC transactions.

Finally, the term Bitcoin has also been used to refer to the protocol, which is continuously developed as open-source software. However, in 2014, the original Bitcoin client software was officially renamed Bitcoin Core to avoid further misunderstandings. As open-source software, Bitcoin Core has many contributors worldwide.

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