We have reached the end of this chapter! Now, you should be able to appreciate what a unique system Bitcoin is. It is the first and foremost implementation of a decentralized digital currency and peer-to-peer payment system. To recap, the five powers powering Bitcoin are as follows:

• Blockchain
• Cryptography
• Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm
• P2P network
• Software code base

All these create powerful network effects and are further reinforced with the growth of the Bitcoin community and ecosystem. With increased user adoption, more applications and use cases, the value of the network grows, which in turn creates incentives for further development and innovation leading to an even higher future growth potential.

We started our Bitcoin journey from the roots of the technology and reviewed its successful launch and evolution. We went on to examine more sophisticated concepts...