About the Bitcoin

Bitcoin:

It is a first decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user-to-user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.

Decentralized ?

Bitcoin does not have a central authority and the bitcoin network is decentralized:

no central server, bitcoin network is peer-to-peer, no central storage, bitcoin ledger is distribute.The ledger is public, anybody can store it on their computer, no single administrator the ledger is maintained by a network of equally privileged miners, Anybody can become a miner.

Bitcoin was the first popular cryptocoin. No one knows exactly who created it — most cryptocurrencies are designed for maximum anonymity — but bitcoins first appeared in 2009 from a developer supposedly named Satoshi Nakamoto. He has since disappeared and left behind a Bitcoin fortune.
Because bitcoin was the first major cryptocurrency, all digital currencies created since then are called altcoins, or alternative coins. Ethereum, Litecoin and lot of other coins are all altcoins because they are not bitcoin.

Who was Satoshi Nakamoto:

was he Japanese ?

According to a Japanese Book, "Satoshi" means "clear thinking, quick witted; wise". "Naka" can mean "medium, inside, or relationship". "Moto" can mean "origin", or "foundation".

We can't know for sure whether he was Japanese or not. In fact, it's rather presumptuous to assume that he was actually a 'he’.

when bitcoin.org was registered on August 18th 2008, the registrant actually used a Japanese anonymous registration service, and hosted it using a Japanese ISP. The registration for the site was only transferred to Finland on May 18th 2011, which weakens the Finland theory somewhat.

1-    The New Yorker's Joshua Davis believed that

          Satoshi Nakamoto was Michael    Clear, a 

          graduate cryptography student at Dublin's Trinity

          College.

2-    Adam Penenberg at FastCompany disputed that claim, arguing instead that Nakamoto may actually have been three people: Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry.

Tow Australian Says He and His Dead Friend Invented Bitcoin

This story was originally published on December 8, 2015. Shortly thereafter, Craig Wright scrubbed much of his digital presence and disappeared for months—until May 2, 2016, when he publicly announced that he is the creator of Bitcoin.

In early November 2015, Gizmodo received a series of anonymous tip emails from someone who claimed to not only know the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, but who also claimed to have worked for him. “I hacked Satoshi Naklamoto [sic],” the first message read. “These files are all from his business account. The person is Dr Craig Wright.” What followed was a package of email files apparently pulled directly from an Outlook account belonging to Craig Wright, an Australian academic, computer engineering expert, and serial entrepreneur with a litany of degrees and corporations to his name.

What is bitcoin mining process ?

Bitcoin mining is the process by which transactions are verified and added to the public ledger, known as the block chain, Anyone with access to the internet and suitable hardware can participate in mining. The mining process involves compiling recent transactions into blocks and trying to solve a computationally difficult puzzle.The participant who first solves the puzzle gets to place the next block on the block chain and claim the rewards. The rewards, which incentivize mining, are both the transaction fees associated with the transactions compiled in the block as well as newly released bitcoin
           The amount of new bitcoin released with each mined block is called the block reward. The block reward is halved every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every 4 years. The block reward started at 50 in 2009, is now 12.5 in 2018, and will continue to decrease. This diminishing block reward will result in a total release of bitcoin that approaches 21 million.  

History of Bitcoin :

The domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered on 18 August 2008. In November 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System^[ was posted to a cryptography mailing list. Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open source code and released it in January 2009. Nakamoto's identity remains unknown.

In January 2009, the bitcoin network was created when Nakamoto mined the first block of the chain, known as the genesis block.

Nakamoto is estimated to have mined one million bitcoins before disappearing in 2010, when he handed the network alert key and control of the code repository over to Gavin Andresen. Andresen later became lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation. Andresen then sought to decentralize control. This left opportunity for controversy to develop over the future development path of bitcoin

In 2011, the price started at $0.30 per bitcoin, growing to $5.27 for the year. The price rose to $31.50 on 8 June. Within a month the price fell to $11.00. The next month if fell to $7.80, and in another month to $4.7

In 2012 bitcoin prices started at $5.27 growing to $13.30 for the year. By 9 January the price had risen to $7.38, but then crashed by 49% to $3.80 over the next 16 days. The price then rose to $16.41 on 17 August, but fell by 57% to $7.10 over the next three days.

The Bitcoin Foundation was founded in September 2012 to promote bitcoin's development and uptake.

In 2013 prices started at $13.30 rising to $770 by 1 January 2014.

In 2015 prices started at $314 and rose to $434 for the year. In 2016 prices rose to $998 on 1 January 2017.

Prices started at $998 in 2017 and rose to $13,412.44 on 1 January 2018. On 17 December bitcoin's price reached an all-time high of $19,666.

China banned trading in bitcoin, with the first steps taken in September 2017, and a complete ban starting 1 February 2018. Bitcoin prices then fell from $9,052 to $6,914 on 5 February 2018.The percentage of bitcoin trading in renminbi fell from over 90% in September 2017 to less than 1% in June.