# Introduction

Bitcoin is an innovative technology created in 2008 by an individual or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It was introduced through the whitepaper titled *“Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”* While peer-to-peer digital cash systems were explored as early as the 1990s, these systems consistently struggled with the "double-spending problem."

Double spending refers to the risk of a single unit of digital cash being spent multiple times. Earlier systems relied on trusted third parties to monitor transactions and prevent double spending, which undermined the goal of decentralization. Bitcoin solved this problem with a revolutionary system that does not require trust in intermediaries. Although cryptography is an essential component of the solution, Bitcoin's true innovation lies in its economic design, which prevents double spending. We will explore this economic solution in more depth later in the course.

In traditional accounting, ledgers are used to track money as it is spent and received. Bitcoin builds upon this idea by using a global ledger to record and maintain the state of all Bitcoin transactions. This **Bitcoin ledger** is continuously updated and shared among participants in the network, ensuring that all peers agree on a single global state. When we refer to the Bitcoin ledger, we are describing this global record of all transactions.

Bitcoin also incorporates the concept of digital scarcity. Within the Bitcoin protocol, there is a finite supply of bitcoins. The smallest unit of a bitcoin, nicknamed a “satoshi,” represents 1/100,000,000th of a bitcoin. The protocol ensures that no more than 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, making it a digitally scarce asset.

While the Bitcoin protocol introduced these groundbreaking concepts, not all implementations of the protocol have stayed true to its original purpose as outlined in the whitepaper. The **BSV blockchain** is the only implementation that preserves the original design and functionality of Bitcoin, offering scalability and utility as a global ledger for both payments and data.


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