Digital currency,
on the record.

Bitcoin is a digital bearer asset, introduced in 2009 and now held by institutions and individuals worldwide. It moves between parties without a bank in the middle, and its ledger is maintained collectively by the network rather than any single authority. In practical terms, it behaves as a form of settlement money that happens to live online.

A wallet holds the private keys that authorise any movement of your digital assets. You may hold one yourself, or trust a regulated custodian to hold one on your behalf. The keys are what grant control — the coins themselves do not physically move between addresses; the ledger simply records who may now authorise them.

A blockchain is a shared ledger, maintained in parallel by many participants, that records transactions in cryptographically-linked blocks. Because each record references the one before it, tampering with the past is detectable by anyone. It is, in effect, a public record book with the properties of a safe.

Public-key cryptography underpins every cryptocurrency transaction. A public key functions as an address where funds may be received and is freely shareable. A private key is the signature that authorises funds to leave that address, and must remain confidential. Lose the private key and you lose the ability to move the balance it controls.

You sign the transaction with your private key; the network verifies the signature against the matching public address and updates the shared ledger. The process is closer to a certified bank transfer than a cash handover — every step is recorded, verifiable, and, once confirmed, final.