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Bitcoin is a form of digital money that facilitates decentralized and peer-to-peer transactions without involving centralized intermediaries like banks. The Bitcoin network records transactions on a distributed ledger (blockchain) comprising multiple nodes (computers) globally. 

Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous cypherpunk, published the Bitcoin white paper on October 31, 2008. The network went live on January 9, 2009, when Bitcoin (BTC) became the first-ever cryptocurrency. 

Following are some of Bitcoin’s important characteristics:

• Scarce: Bitcoin (BTC) has a finite supply of 21 million coins, making it an anti-inflationary financial asset. 
• Fungible: Bitcoin is a fungible asset such that every coin is identical and equivalent to another. 

Divisible: Bitcoin’s divisibility follows from its fungibility. 1 BTC is thus divisible into satoshis (sats), up to eight decimal places (1 BTC = 100 million sats).

The Bitcoin network functions according to a decentralized consensus mechanism called Proof-of-Work (PoW). 

PoW prevents double-spending to secure the economy as well as brings new coins into circulation through bitcoin mining. It thus requires ‘miners’ to use their computational power to solve ‘cryptographic puzzles’ for verifying bitcoin transactions and adding new ‘blocks’ to the chain. The process takes around ten minutes to finalize and rewards miners in freshly minded BTC.

Bitcoin’s price was $0 in 2009 when Satoshi mined the ‘genesis’ (first) block. But then it rose steadily over the years. During the so-called ‘ICO Craze’ of 2017, BTC’s price crossed $19,000 per coin for the first time. The next major peak came in December 2020 when the bitcoin price chart came close to $30,000 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. By November 2021, however, BTC achieved its current all-time-high of $68789.63. The bitcoin market cap also reached $1 trillion by this time. 

Bitcoin’s price today is $43600.57. But Bitcoin’s evolution isn’t only about price gains. Some of its other milestones are as follows:

• In August 2017, Bitcoin underwent a hard fork that created Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
• In November 2021, the community implemented the Taproot upgrade to introduce smart contracts on Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin transactions are absolutely safe for multiple reasons. One, the underlying blockchain eliminates single (centralized) points of failure by recording transactions on a globally distributed network. Two, the network is publicly verifiable and anyone can cross-check the transaction history for reference. Three, manipulating bitcoin mining is practically impossible and economically unviable.

Storing BTC is however not as inherently safe as transacting them. People often store their bitcoins on exchange-hosted online or ‘hot’ wallets which poses severe security concerns. Malicious actors can target these wallets, dupe you into sharing credentials, and steal your funds. 

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) helps but is not enough in and of itself. Therefore, storing bitcoins in ‘cold’ or offline hardware wallets is the safest way. Ledger’s Hardware Wallets is the best option in this regard. It lets you keep your Bitcoins away from hackers’ reach. 

Bitcoin (BTC) is available for purchase on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges globally. But this method poses security and ownership concerns. You don’t own the private keys of centralized wallets and must rely completely on the platform’s infrastructure. 

Ledger Live solves this problem. It enables you to simultaneously purchase and transfer bitcoins to your Ledger Hardware Wallet. You thus realize your sovereignty and completely control your private keys at all times. And naturally, this is the most secure way of buying bitcoins.

You can even use your PayPal account or Debit/Credit Cards to purchase BTC on Ledger. And the process is very simple, involving five general steps:

• Get a Ledger Hardware Wallet. 
• Download Ledger Live on a web or mobile device. 
• Create a designated bitcoin account after setting up Ledger Live. 
• Install the Bitcoin application on the hardware wallet from the Ledger Live dashboard. 
• Start buying Bitcoin using Ledger Live and its partners: Coinify and Wyre.

You can also swap or trade bitcoin on Ledger for other cryptocurrencies to diversify your portfolio and generate returns. Ledger has over 200 swapping pairs for Bitcoin, which you can access as follows:

• Get a Ledger Hardware Wallet.

• Download Ledger Live.
• Install the ‘Exchange’ application on Ledger Live, alongwith the applications for the coins you wish to swap.
• You must of course have BTC in your linked hardware wallet to swap them. In case you don’t, you must purchase some before swapping. 
• Once you have the BTC in your wallet and have completed the above steps, you can start swapping.