When you hear about bitcoin “mining,” you envisage coins being dug out of the ground. But bitcoin isn’t physical, so why do we call it mining?

Now that you’ve set up your bitcoin wallet and are ready to make your first transaction, let’s take a look at how bitcoin transactions actually work.

Before holding any bitcoin, you need somewhere to store it. Just like in the physical world, you store your bitcoin in a wallet

Satoshi Nakamoto originally created Bitcoin as an alternative, decentralized payment method. Unlike international bank transfers, it was low-cost and almost instantaneous.

So you’ve learned the basics of bitcoin, now you’re excited about its potential and want to buy some. But how?

The first mention of a product called bitcoin was in August 2008 when two programmers using the names Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi registered a new domain, bitcoin.org. In October of the same year, Nakamoto released a document, called a white paper, entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”

Cryptocurrency’s unpredictability comes in contrast to the generally stable prices of fiat money, such as U.S. dollars, or other assets, such as gold. Values of currencies like the dollar do change gradually over time, but the day-to-day changes are often more drastic for cryptocurrencies, where the value jumps up and down regularly.

Today on the Internet, we must constantly trust one another with sensitive data, transactions, and records. Most of our interactions on the Internet run on centralized web servers, and massive amounts of user data often exist in a single database. Current databases are designed to be controlled by “trusted” admins who can read, alter, block, and even delete data. The centralized architecture of the Internet today is not only inefficient but vulnerable to censorship and targeted attacks by both hackers and internal bad actors

Facebook has recently announced its long-awaited cryptocurrency, Libra Coin which will be backed by low-volatility financial assets to maintain stability.

The cryptocurrency, Libra will allow people to buy things at local grocery stores or transfer money to others with nearly zero fees. While revealing the details, Facebook released its whitepaper, explaining their plans for a less volatile cryptocurrency, smart contracts platform and a new decentralized blockchain