$اC Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency that operates peer-to-peer and aims to function as a medium of exchange independent of any central authority. BTC can be transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable, and immutable way.

BTC was launched in 2009 and 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 provided a solution to the Byzantine Generals' Problem through the blockchain network structure, a concept first introduced by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991.

The Bitcoin whitepaper was published in 2008 by an individual or group using the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto," whose true identity has not been verified to this day.

The Bitcoin protocol utilizes a proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm based on SHA-256d to achieve network consensus. Its target block creation time is 10 minutes, with a maximum supply of 21 million tokens, featuring a decreasing issuance rate. To prevent fluctuations in block creation time, the network's block difficulty is adjusted through an algorithm based on the previous 2016 block creation times.

With a maximum block size of 1 megabyte, the Bitcoin protocol supports both the Lightning Network, a second-layer payment channel infrastructure, and the separate witness, an upgrade to the protocol aimed at increasing the number of transactions in the