Bitcoin is the world's first and most popularly used cryptocurrency. The decentralized digital currency came into existence in 2009 and is used to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions and money transfers without the need for intermediaries such as banks. Transactions are verified by nodes within the blockchain network and recorded in an immutable and encrypted manner within a public distributed ledger.
Bitcoin is created using a process called mining which rewards users for solving complicated puzzles to confirm a set of transactions known as blocks. Bitcoin can be used as legal tender in El Salvador, to transfer payments between users, for investment as a store of value, and to trade against other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies.