Bitcoin was first coined by Santoshi Nakamoto, a Chinese, in 2009. In 2012, its value was $1000. A Bitcoin is mined on a privately owned, specialized computing equipment and passed around by a global network of computers. The transactions are traceable, but the parties are not. In November, 2013, peoples Bank of China objected the use of Bitcoin and told that it is not a recognized currency. Therefore, its value dropped  to $345. Asia's first Bitcoin ATM was installed in Singapore in February, 2014. However, the regulators and lawmakers  have raised a concern that this is not a recognized currency, and be used for fraudulent purposes.

The system is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the block chain,which uses bitcoin as its unit of account. Since the system works without a central repository or single administrator, the U.S. Treasury categorizes bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency. Bitcoin is often called the first crypto currency, although prior systems existed and it is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency.Bitcoin is the largest of its kind in terms of total market value.

Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their computing power to verify and record payments into a public ledger. This activity is called mining and miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins. Besides being obtained by mining, bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. When sending bitcoins, users can pay an optional transaction fee to the miners.