human
I've been hearing a lot of buzz about bitcoin. What is it and how does it work?
assistant
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It's a decentralized digital currency that uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions as they are made. Transactions are verified by a network of computers, or miners, who compete to solve complex mathematical problems in order to add new blocks to the blockchain. As each block is added to the chain, the difficulty of these problems increases, making it harder for miners to find solutions. This creates an incentive for miners to stay on top of the latest transactions and confirm them quickly.