I read the entire Bitcoin whitepaper so you don't have to (but you should!)
Hey all! So what is in the Bitcoin whitepaper?It is supposed to be a "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". It's a system meant for payments and exchanging value.IntroductionThis is the rationale of the whole thing: third parties seek rent on your transactions, so lets cut them out, so that transactions are cheap. They are also irreversible, so merchants/services are more protected in this system.This is achieved by combining a chain of digital signatures with computing power invested into proof of work.\2. TransactionsThis is the first half of the equation.Say you own a coin. To spend it you need to digitally sign, with your private key, that you want to spend it.This ensures a number of desirable properties. No one other than you can spend your coin. The coin can't be spent twice.\3. Timestamp ServerEvery 10 minutes or so the system as a whole batches the transactions that happened in those minutes into a block and finalizes them. None of the transactions that are