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Learn about where to buy Bitcoin
How to open an account on an exchange
Choosing the best purchasing method

Hero Image for Article: What Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions. The Bitcoin network is maintained by miners who add blocks to the blockchain. Bitcoin’s supply is predetermined and cannot be changed.

Crypto vs. Bitcoin: What You Need to Know

Which digital asset is better for your investment portfolio; which is more likely to be profitable and carries less risk over the long-term?

How to Buy Bitcoin

Learning how to buy Bitcoin is simple. Bitcoin can be purchased in a variety of ways using brokerages, exchanges, and peer-to-peer networks.

Bitcoin Markets and Price

Why Does Bitcoin Have Value?

Bitcoin’s unique features make it valuable in the eyes of its holders. Notably, its scarce, auditable supply is not controlled by a government or other monolithic entity.

What Is Backing Bitcoin?

Backing a currency is a method to control the value of its price by connecting it to another commodity. Bitcoin is not backed by any other asset. Gold and fiat currencies are not backed by anything either.

What Is Market Making?

Financial markets facilitate the trading of financial assets across many participants. These markets are usually owned by a company who pairs buyers and sellers of different assets and maintains the market’s fairness.

How to Store Bitcoin

Introduction to Bitcoin Wallets

Bitcoin wallets store and protect the public and private keys, allowing you to send, receive, and store bitcoin. Bitcoin wallets can come in the form of software or hardware devices.

How Bitcoin Wallets Work

Bitcoin wallets hold a user's keys, allowing them to sign transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Wallets also allow users to receive bitcoin and store it securely.

What Is Bitcoin Cold Storage?

Cold storage wallets isolate bitcoin private keys from the internet. Cold storage offers superior security at the cost of lower convenience.

Bitcoin Mining

What Is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining secures the Bitcoin network, confirms transactions and releases new coins into the Bitcoin ecosystem. Here is a brief look at how it all works.

What Is a Bitcoin Halving?

The Bitcoin halving is an event that happens approximately every four years, when the bitcoin reward miners earn for finding a new block is cut in half. This algorithm reduces Bitcoin's inflation rate and enforces its scarcity.

What Will Happen After All Bitcoin Are Mined?

When all bitcoin have been mined, miner revenue will depend entirely on transaction fees. The cost of transaction fees and purchasing power of bitcoin will likely adjust higher to the lack of new supply.

Bitcoin Taxes and Estate Planning

Bitcoin Tax Accounting

Filing taxes on bitcoin losses, gains, and any bitcoin earned income is necessary to avoid additional taxes or penalties by the IRS. Different bitcoin activities create different taxable events.

Investing Bitcoin in a Trust

Bitcoin investors looking to pass their wealth on to future generations, while keeping their bitcoin private and secure, should consider investing bitcoin in a trust.

Investing in Bitcoin as a Family Office

Family offices prioritize preserving, growing, and distributing their wealth over time. Investing in Bitcoin can assist family offices in meeting their investment goals and priorities.

Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology

What Is a Blockchain?

Blockchain is the technology that underpins Bitcoin and allows its users to exchange value without a central intermediary. A blockchain is a database containing the entire history of Bitcoin transactions.

What Is a Bitcoin Node?

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency that is a network of nodes running Bitcoin software. A node is able to receive and communicate transaction information with other nodes in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin nodes store and verify the blockchain.

What Is the Lightning Network?

The Lightning Network facilitates instant, near-feeless payments for Bitcoin. These payments happen on a secondary network instead of Bitcoin’s blockchain.

Glossary

River Glossary provides a list of terms to help advance your understanding of Bitcoin, cryptography, and financial markets.

Bitcoin Learning Center