Why is Bitcoin so different from the currency we are used to?

In one sense, Bitcoin is very much like the fiat currency we use today, the Euro the dollar, the yen, for example, simply because it can be used to purchase goods and services electronically. However, it has one very important characteristic, one that separates it from traditional currency and you already know what that is - the fact that it is decentralized. And because it isn’t controlled by any single entity, more people are at ease because it means their money is only controlled by one person – themselves.

Bitcoin was created after Satoshi Nakamoto decided he wanted to produce a currency that didn’t depend on centralized authorities, a currency that could be transferred instantly, electronically and with incredibly low fees for each transaction.

Bitcoin is not printed, like our traditional currency is, by a central bank and completely unaccountable to those who spend it, let alone making up the rules as they go along. These banks are able to produce money whenever they want, whenever the national debt needs to be covered and this results in a devaluation of that currency. Bitcoin is digital, created by a community rather than one entity and this community will also process transactions that are made by the currency and this is what makes the Bitcoin its own network for payments.

Another difference is that, where the central banks can churn out money hand over fist, that can’t happen with Bitcoin. The rules of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Protocol, state that the currency has a hard limit of 21 million ‘coins’,

and once the final one has been mined that will be it. However, the Bitcoin is divisible and can be broken down into smaller
parts, right down to a Satoshi, one-hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin.