What Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is free speech money.

Bitcoin allows anyone in the world to store value digitally and transact in a way that is secure, censorship-resistant, and doesn’t require permission or approval from any government, corporation, or bank.

Increasingly businesses and individuals are being cut off from traditional payment processing, banks, and more online. This includes Gab.com and our founder Andrew Torba, who have both been blacklisted by VISA as well as payment processors like Paypal.

Bitcoin solves this problem.

Bitcoin has been smeared by the mainstream media, governments, and the traditional banking industry for over a decade now. The reason for this is simple: the central banks and oligarchs in power are all threatened by bitcoin, as they should be. Bitcoin promotes individual sovereignty and annihilates dependency on existing power structures, so some pushback from the powers that be is to be expected.

“Bitcoin is too confusing, I don’t know where to start.”

The first step to understanding the potential and power of bitcoin is to educate yourself. We hope that you’ll find our information and guides useful on this website, but we also encourage you to search out additional information from multiple sources. Learn as much as you possibly can. One of the best ways to learn is to learn by doing. Start with buying a small amount and making a few transactions.

“But I can’t afford a bitcoin, it is thousands of dollars. “

One of the biggest misconceptions about bitcoin is that you need to purchase an entire coin in order to use it. You can purchase any amount of bitcoin which is denominated in a fractional unit of bitcoin called a Satoshi, or “sats” for short. Think of sats like you think of cents. Cents are a fractional denomination of the dollar. Sats are a fractional denomination of a bitcoin.

“So how do I buy and store bitcoin?”

The first thing you’ll need is a wallet. There are several different types of wallets, each of them has pros and cons. Mobile wallets can be used on your smartphone. Desktop wallets can be used on your desktop computers. Web wallets can be accessed from any device and tend to be included with exchanges, which is how you’ll be purchasing bitcoin. Hardware wallets are the most secure physical wallets to store your bitcoin on a device.

To start, the easiest thing to do would be using a mobile or web wallet offered by an exchange. That way you can purchase bitcoin and have it appear in a web wallet to get started right away.

We recommend River.

“What is a bitcoin exchange?”

A bitcoin exchange is a digital marketplace where people can buy and sell bitcoin in exchange for fiat currency. Similar to how you exchange your currency while traveling abroad, digital exchanges allow you to exchange fiat currency for bitcoin. Signing up for an exchange often requires identity verification to help prevent fraud.

“I purchased some bitcoin, now what?

Now you are ready to send some bitcoin to others or make a purchase. You’ll need the wallet address of the person or business you want to send your bitcoin to. You can support us at Gab by purchasing GabPro with bitcoin here.

“What is a bitcoin address?”

Think of a bitcoin wallet address like your bank account number for bitcoin. It’s a long series of unique characters that identifies an individual’s wallet account. These can also be used as invoice id’s for merchants. Wallet addresses also often appear as QR codes which can quickly and easily be scanned by your mobile device if you’re using a mobile bitcoin wallet. Here’s an example.

Our Bitcoin address: 3MUryyNEYsHngAURKHexarojUxpVLpQpM6

“Is my bitcoin safe? I’ve heard a few stories about people losing theirs.”

This is why education is important. You want to be informed and understand how to securely store your bitcoin to make sure it is safe. This is something we are going to help you with on this site. Once you get up and running on an exchange we highly recommend your purchase a bitcoin hardware wallet, which is one of the most secure ways to store your bitcoin.

There’s an upfront investment to purchase the hardware wallet, but if you plan on purchasing and storing bitcoin it will be worth the cost to buy a hardware wallet. We recommend the Ledger for it’s ease of use and the Coldcard for its open source product for more advanced users.

Bitcoin is free speech money.

-Andrew Torba, CEO Gab.com
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