A concise and accessible exploration of Bitcoin’s internals and potential impact.

Main topics include:

The Journal of Private Enterprise 30(3), 2015, 19–50

By Saifedean Ammous

Lebanese American University

Bitcoin is the first technology for the final transfer of digital goods online, facilitating instant global payments without intermediation. Bitcoin’s operation is based on a distributed, decentralized, and transparent asset ledger that acts as an ongoing chain record of all transactions. The system issues coins to reward those who contribute processing power to the network’s operation. The possibilities created by this innovation are significant for the world’s poor, who could skip traditional political and financial institutions and move to digital currencies in the same way they have gone straight to using mobile phones and skipped landline telephones.