What the fuck is a Bitcoin? A kind of file with its own extension? A long line of code or numbers?

Yeah, Bitcoin is a ripoff though. There are much easier free ways to speed up your computer.

downloadmoreram.com/

Yes if they manage to steal 51% of the servers all at once all over the world and have an advanced quantum computer to figure out all the private keys

Man, you can't speed up your computer with fucking cryptos.

I'll explain it like you're from reddit:

The blockchain is a distributed ledger; a collection of data or accounts that everybody can view and keep on their machines. It's like a book that is copied on 10,000 computers. Each computer has the same book with the same information.

A bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis. A satoshi is the minimum divisible unit of a bitcoin, similar to how a cent or penny is the minimum divisible unit of a dollar.

When somebody says "I have 1.2 bitcoin" what they mean is they hold the private keys (a kind of password, but not really, but basically) that gives them permission to access 1.2 bitcoin on the blockchain.

tl;dr a bitcoin is a number, or collection of numbers, on a public distributed database.

Thx user. So a collection of numbers on a public distributed database reached 20.000 dollars per unit.

What do they do besides having a value in real life money? What are the benefits of having BTC over the fact that I can sell it for money?

Yes you can idiot. Just open the .btc file in the folder and it will begin the algo hashing terra process of magnifying your keccak-256 GPU core performance using ASIC computing.

Oh, so it's like creating a remote interface on visual basic to track differents IP's on a wide range?

There is a public ledger/record that's some GB big by now, split into a chain of blocks that contains signatures/hashes of each previous one. this makes it effectively impossible to change anything in the ledger (on your computer) without - if you join the network - being exposed to be a scammer to the majority of people who also hold a copy of it.
The data on the ledge are numbers in an INput and and OUTput field, that are tied to an address. There are only 16 million IN values that don't come from some other OUT, and those are the 16 million mined* coins.
The one person who, for a particular address, can turn an IN to an OUT, is the one who has the private key matching the address.
A wallet is merely a small app that holds the private keys and enables you to tlak with the network.
Sending something from your IN is sending a request to the network nodes to collectively change the files.

*btw. I did a short video explaining mining tech in some simpler terms here
youtu.be/w3sI8WVX-cc

I will spoonfeed you user but please realise how stupid you look by sincerely asking a basic question (which you can google) on a Finnish jukebox repair forum.

There's thousands of copies of the BTC blockchain, you can download it yourself too and keep it updated and help the network. The file extension doesn't matter, you have a copy of all the information within the BTC network as does anybody else who runs a node. No one can just open it and 'steal' your bitcoins.
Your bitcoins are not individual files somewhere, think of the blockchain as a big notebook that everyone has a copy of, in it you can read that "Wallet A owns 3 BTC", you incidentally have the key that can control Wallet A and only that key can change the information within that big notebook. So by having your private key you go and write in that notebook "Wallet A moved 2 BTC to Wallet B" after which, anyone accessing the blockchain can read that Wallet A has 1 BTC and Wallet B now has 2 BTC. Only the private keys to these respective wallets can control these 'funds'

For many people it's a trust issue. If you have millions of dollars in the bank and it goes under they are only insured for.. I think $200,000 of it or something. For many this is unacceptable. You can mitigate the risk by buying gold, stocks, using multiple banks, OR you can buy bitcoin. Since nobody else holds your bitcoin you "become your own bank" in a sense.

Another factor is that some people are losing faith in the USD. More USD is printed all the time, and the government keeps increasing it's debt. Coupled with the fact that many believe the petrodoller is coming to an end they're looking for an alternative. Bitcoin, or more likely another crypto, may be that alternative. It may not. It's all speculative at this point. Most likely the USD will just keep inflating for many years to come though.

But that brings up another point, inflation. Many hate the idea of keeping their funds in something that loses value over time. Of course stocks/gold/bonds can increase in value with time, some consider crypto a more pure form of currency.

Personally I think most of those people are crazy, but that doesn't matter. If enough people believe it it will become valuable.

Cool. Thx user. But one person (or company, or state) could hold the 51% percent or more of the keys and be the big fish on the blockchain

Yes, creating a GUI interface. That's how the .btc files work.

Okay, this board is useful sometimes. You are cool people.

The "gain" is that it's digital while at the same time enabling you to hold your own money.
You can hold your own gold but then it's not digital and transferable.
Of you can sign up to a platform/bank, in which case you can send it over the platform interface but at no time do you hold your money (you trust the bank not to die/runaway/blackmail you)

Most tech for bitcoin existed since forever

"blockchain" - 70's
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree

proof of work - 90s
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system

internet money - 90's
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashcash

smart contract - 90's
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract

The paper from 2008 however combined all of those and solved what's known as the "double spending problem"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spending

Thus enabling the
>digital while at the same time enabling you to hold your own money.

But there are many better cryptos than BTC now

I mean yes, but it's not the case

Your bitcoins exist on the blockchain. You can download a copy of the blockchain when you run a full bitcoin node. The blockchain is a big file, that contains the history of every confirmed transaction. All full nodes have a copy of the blockchain that gets updated every time a block is mined. Your bitcoins exist in that file, they are represented as a chain of digital signatures. But only if you possess the corresponding private key can you unlock them and chain them to another address (i.e. send them to someone else), once miners include your transaction in the next block it becomes part of the blockchain and only the owner of the private key corresponding to the address you sent them to can move them. It's decentralized because they exist everywhere, on every computer that holds a current copy of the blockchain, but only you can give your bitcoins to someone else by signing a transaction with your private key.

I'm surprised by the amount of helpful comments you got, maybe this board is kinda maturing because of all the new members. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing

If you are interested in cryptocurrency then also look into ethereum and chainlink, bitcoin is pretty old and isn't even the most sophisticated program at this point. Ethereum was a huge leap forward in the crypto and chainlink seems to be the next step. The ultimate goal is to make cryptocurrency a universally accepted form of payment that is almost instant. It is the future

I have ETH, bought it at 260 I think. But I feel a little guilty about having it and not knowing all the stuff behind it and cryptos in general. I can recite the concepts like a parrot (blockchain, smart contracts, etc) and in fact I have written an article about crypto for the magazine I work for, but I don't truly understand what the fuck is going on. Well, I'm closer to do it now thanks to all of you!

Bitcoin is an UTXO blockchain which means there are no accounts associated with private keys or wallets as such.

Each tx locks in some number of BTC by specifying who exactly can spend it: if a person manages to provide the key to unlock this tx with his private key, he can specify the next person in the chan.

The problem with UTXO is that if you received 100 BTC from someone you cannot send a fraction of it: you need to create a tx with the whole 100 BTC stack. To send 50 BTC you specify yourself as the receiver for 50 BTC change.

In case you previously received 1 BTC 50 times, your only way to send 50 BTC is to specify each of these previous 50 txs in the new one. As transfer fees are determined by a tx length (each tx is basically a text), the more inputs you specify, the costier it is. That is why when you send BTC from exchanges, fees are crazy big: all those poorfags send $50-$100 worth of BTC, so you need 10-20 inputs to receive a $1000 output.

As for what exactly a BTC is: it is a permission to create a text message broadcasted throughout the network, which specifies who else can create new messages

Wew, wish I'd bought my ETH when you did, I waited until it was up to $340

So if what I get from this thread, have a hardware wallet I actually own Bitcoin because I have access to the blockchain
Now, if i buy btc at an exchange like coinbase, I don't really own Bitcoin, do I?
The exchange owns the Bitcoin and when I want to sell or buy more, my actions themselves don't buy or sell, but the exchange does it for me because they have the access?

Correct. Paper wallets and hardware wallets are fine. Holding on exchange means you don't own the crypto.

If you aren't the only person holding the private key you don't own the crypto.

A made up currency that neckbeards and pajeets trade back and forth all the while chad is stealing their money through pumps and dumps just like they do with your ex gf.