Bitcoin, abbreviated as BTC and represented as ₿, is a decentralized digital currency introduced in 2008 by an anonymous author under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Its usage started in 2009 after the open-source release of its implementation. In 2021, El Salvador recognized it as legal tender. However, due to its usage by criminals, regulators have been keeping a watchful eye, leading some countries to ban it in the same year. Bitcoin operates through distributed collaboration among computers, each acting as a node in the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Every node has an independent copy of a public list of transactions, called a blockchain, without central control. Transactions are validated through cryptographic methods to ensure only the rightful owner can spend their bitcoin. Nodes agree on the blockchain's content through a computationally intensive process known as mining, carried out by specialized machines. This process consumes vast amounts of electricity, which has been criticized for its environmental impact.