But how does bitcoin actually work?

The math behind cryptocurrencies.
Help fund future projects: / 3blue1brown
An equally valuable form of support is to simply share some of the videos.
Special thanks to these supporters: 3b1b.co/btc-thanks
This video was also funded with help from Protocol Labs: protocol.ai/join/
Some people have asked if this channel accepts contributions in cryptocurrency form. As a matter of fact, it does:
3b1b.co/crypto
ENS: 3b1b.eth
2^256 video: • How secure is 256 bit ...
Music by Vincent Rubinetti: / heartbeat
Here are a few other resources I'd recommend:
Original Bitcoin paper: bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Block explorer: blockexplorer.com/
Blog post by Michael Nielsen: goo.gl/BW1RV3
(This is particularly good for understanding the details of what transactions look like, which is something this video did not cover)
Video by CuriousInventor: • How Bitcoin Works Unde...
Video by Anders Brownworth: • Blockchain 101 - A Vis...
Ethereum white paper: goo.gl/XXZddT
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
2:25 - Ledgers and digital signatures
7:21 - The ledger is the currency
10:06 - Decentralization
12:26 - Cryptographic hash functions
14:38 - Proof of work and blockchains
19:42 - Double spending
21:41 - Block times, halvenings, and transaction fees
24:40 - Thanks
Thanks to these viewers for their contributions to translations
Italian: @lcl45
------------------
Animations are largely made using manim, a scrappy open-source python library. github.com/3b1b/manim
If you want to check it out, I feel compelled to warn you that it's not the most well-documented tool, and has many other quirks you might expect in a library someone wrote with only their own use in mind.
Music by Vincent Rubinetti.
Download the music on Bandcamp:
vincerubinetti.bandcamp.com/a...
Stream the music on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/1dVyjw...
If you want to contribute translated subtitles or to help review those that have already been made by others and need approval, you can click the gear icon in the video and go to subtitles/cc, then "add subtitles/cc". I really appreciate those who do this, as it helps make the lessons accessible to more people.
------------------
3blue1brown is a channel about animating math, in all senses of the word animate. And you know the drill with KZbin, if you want to stay posted on new videos, subscribe, and click the bell to receive notifications (if you're into that).
If you are new to this channel and want to see more, a good place to start is this playlist: 3b1b.co/recommended
Various social media stuffs:
Website: www.3blue1brown.com
Twitter: / 3blue1brown
Patreon: / 3blue1brown
Facebook: / 3blue1brown
Reddit: / 3blue1brown

[@3blue1brown]

If you see comments here about investing or brokers, they are scams. Videos about cryptocurrencies, evidently including ones that are just about the underlying technology/math, are hotbeds for attracting nefarious actors preying on the impressionable. Also, hi! If you’re new to this channel, most of it is about visualizing math. I get it, you probably landed here searching for how BTC works, not to spend your afternoon getting pulled into learning about, say, prime numbers or problem-solving, but if you have a moment take a look at the rest of the channel, you may enjoy what you find.

[@samuelluce8286]

I'd recommend not just reporting, but also replying to them, explaining to any potential readers how their advertisement is a scam. Commenting is quick, and could save somebody hundreds of dollars! :)

[@rjleykassya1931]

Thank you so much Lisa

[@caden5173]

Wow I’m already seeing scams scrolling through the replies to this lmao.

[@rolanddennis791]

I appreciate your efforts toward my account, I give it a try but I wasn't regretting it at least

[@rolanddennis791]

@Eric Martins yeah, you're right

[@morenocesarp]

"I'm still confused, but on a higher level!"

[@scottlane6353]

Me too. My confusion is at a much higher level after seeing and grokking this video. So, I'm grateful for that.

[@ben251]

that's a really nice way of phrasing things

[@awd7477]

i searched alot information and already know how it works before watching this video :D

[@awd7477]

@@themayanksingh i profited alot with it

[@datascience2254]

Confusion is at that level that , it's rare to find someone get it

[@Charlie-rh8od]

When he said “I’m looking at you Charlie” I got chills

[@beomon3449]

lol

[@jacobhall1324]

Pay them back CHARLIE!!!

[@Cethavi]

Charlie, you still owe me $100 😠

[@dogeusR]

Charlie. Pay the man his $100

[@dirkus3722]

😒

[@justinliu6068]

17:30 block creators 17:51 block reward 18:29 mining 19:10 decentralized consensus

[@ultimatechad8738]

Danke

[@zuccca]

Literally the best explanation I have ever seen on this subject. Thank you 3B1B.

[@HR-qy3gf]

This is the clearest video I’ve ever seen, and I still don’t get it.

[@jackfrederiksen7979]

Exactly.

[@ganondorfchampin]

I think the first thing to get down is the notion of decentralized ledgers. An understanding of where the actual bitcoins are in the whole process is vital to understanding what is going on. Everything else is just applying cryptography to deal with the various security problems that these decentralized ledgers would otherwise have.

[@iliketurtles2993]

Acctually tho wtf

[@yoelhaile1683]

loki

[@LTCAproductions]

Most explanations I’ve heard are the same regurgitation of simple analogies with a twist of their own life story but what I want to know is the nuts and bolts of the whole operation. That’s what has been annoying

[@Youth-growth]

You have no idea how much I've tried to find an article or video actually explaining how cryptocurrencies work. Everyone else just goes around with analogies. They probably don't understand fully themselves. Thanks man.

[@DiThi]

Something that should be obvious to any computer scientist: This is terrible in practice. It wastes the same amount of energy every 10 minutes regardless of how many transactions are there. This amount of energy is only decided by how much energy miners want to waste: the answer is as much as possible, while still having a profit. So every 10 minutes miners can spend 6 bitcoins worth of electricity and still have profit (0.25 btc). The more expensive crypto gets, the more energy it will waste.

[@rrestoring_faith]

@Alberto T. Yeah, it's not scalable. Note that proof of work is one solution to the problem; there are many other ways of doing it. (Ex/ proof of time, proof of stake, proof of burn, etc...). Also, if the amount of time was reduced to say 0.01 seconds instead of 10 minutes to make it more practical, there will be too many forks & network spam. The blockchain itself also has poor scalability, though, considering that transactions from a single individual are spread out and all stored separately. It is a neat idea. There are just too many downsides.

[@kseriousr]

@Tobi I'd probably go with centralized and regulated currencies because they seem way less volatile, reliable and secure. And if cryptocoins ever become the go to currency, central authorities and the wealthy will centralize their hold on it, so I don't see how that's ever going to become a better alternative. Maybe the players and the chips would be different but the game would be the same.

[@kseriousr]

@Tobi Inflation is good when regulated. Without gentle inflation, economy and money flow stagnates. Wealth hording isn't good for you. There's a reason gold standards had to go away. Maybe look into the topic.

[@carsonallaby7798]

So true!

[@Bayesic]

So first of all, love the vid Just wanted to say from a purely meta kind of standpoint, I really love how this video is put together. Not even just the editing / graphics and what not, but just the way you tell the story. I'm constantly asking questions in my mind and it's like within the next minute or two you provide an answer. I'm definitely studying a lot of your videos to learn how to improve my own content because you do a masterful job at keeping your audience engaged. Fantastic work

[@itzwindows]

The person above me is a simp

[@6s6]

Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Ohm are in a car They get pulled over. Heisenberg is driving and the cop asks him "Do you know how fast you were going?" "No, but I know exactly where I am" Heisenberg replies. The cop says "You were doing 55 in a 35." Heisenberg throws up his hands and shouts "Great! Now I'm lost!" The cop thinks this is suspicious and orders him to pop open the trunk. He checks it out and says "Do you know you have a dead cat back here?" "We do now, asshole!" shouts Schrodinger. The cop moves to arrest them. Ohm resists.

[@OsvaldoBayerista]

underrated

[@valeriomomigliano37]

Underrated

[@johncavanaugh3960]

Upvoted because it was written by a human.

[@ekxo1126]

No one was expecting this comment, everybody liked it

[@tetesperm]

someone explain

[@mal6120]

this was awesome! I was having trouble on understanding the nodes vs. miners as well as the random number / difficulty adjustment but this totally cleared it up!

[@dhoomketu731]

It's an extremely information dense lecture. You have to watch portions of it again and again to grasp the underlying concepts. But once you've finished it, you feel so damn confident.

[@brands2131]

Yet this 26min video only scratches the surface. To actually understand the data structure of a transaction, and a block, to understand the stack based scripting language of Bitcoin, and so on, goes way beyond this video.

[@dimethyltryptamine8233]

I cant wait for the english version of this video bro looks really good.

[@endrs2568]

😂😂😂

[@christianifashe3591]

🤣🤣🤣

[@notsojharedtroll23]

☠☠☠

[@shaunrobbins5902]

Too much drugs bro

[@TheNibiru720]

I missed the joke?

[@billkidney2364]

I like that Alice, Bob, and Charlies pk's were 01000001, 01000010, and 01000011, which are just A, B, and C in ASCII. Cute.

[@blujay2084]

Nice catch.

[@rensbos4176]

Wow how can you be such a computer nerd (i mean as a compliment)

[@en7998]

Nice! Did a lot of work with ascii recently but didnt catch it

[@MonkOrMan]

I knew there'd be something like that

[@eboubaker3722]

@@en7998 they all have the same start of 010000 you just remember the last digits

[@cristinadavies1318]

In 2019, people have realized there isn't going to be one crypto to rule them all. You're seeing vertical solutions where XRP is focused on payment problems, Ethereum is focused on smart contracts, and increasingly, bitcoin is a store of value. Those aren't competitive. In fact, I want bitcoin and Ethereum to be successful.

[@joelbuzzard623]

Another thing- people began to realise that bitcoin wasn't rising in relationship with the US Dollar; in fact USD is CASCADING downwards with respect to cryptocurrency!

[@dantraficonte8752]

Wow. This was incredibly well illustrated and well done

[@harshchikorde9495]

please make a video on transforms (laplace ,fourier,z- transforms) as these will help many engineering students.Many people take it for granted very little is known about its physical meaning,there are subjects in engineering based on transforms like signals and systems, signal processing, control theory your vedios will surely make a difference in understanding these subjects.

[@VikasVJois]

Harsh Shankar +1 to that

[@itr00ow93]

Harsh Shankar yes laplace!

[@gian3458]

+

[@theoptimist3246]

Yes pls

[@pumpkinman681]

I need this

[@3blue1brown]

Here's the supplemental video about understanding just how big 2^256 is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWqteKB3asSopLs The basic idea is to get a feel for what 2^32 (about 4 billion) multiplied by itself 8 times feels like, building up to a comically absurd computer that would be needed to break 256-bit security.

[@TylerMatthewHarris]

Do you use bitcoin?

[@jonathanschossig1276]

3Blue1Brown Can you link the supplement video?

[@DasEtwas]

do computers even support 265 bits?

[@andorexurix2491]

Though for a quantum computer 2^256 is next to nothing.

[@PeterNjeim]

Bugsy Archimedes, I know up to... well just search up "Sbiis Saibian Large Number Site" or "Pointless Large Number Stuff" and be AMAZED on how big numbers have been named up to, like it's REALLY big!!!

[@izlebakalm860]

*The future is now , you all need to start somewhere no matter how small*

[@nemesisdefiance6199]

I absolutely loved this video. I love how deep into the nitty gritty you go, no other explanation has gone that far that I've found and the fact that this video is 5 years old is astounding.

[@jflight7013]

After watching this video, I have finally realized how dumb I really am.

[@svenm7264]

Well the beginning of Socrates' wisdom was realizing the extent of his own ignorance. It's the unpleasant first step.

[@jflight7013]

I'm not sure what sorcery has to do with this.

[@svenm7264]

@@jflight7013 Socrates is an ancient Greek philosopher.

[@jflight7013]

@@svenm7264, oh sorry, I though you meant sorcery. I didn't know soccer and philosophy had any relationship, but I do know that what was shown in that video was way over my head.

[@allysonand]

@@svenm7264 big difference between ignorance and intelligence

[@codesymphony]

"alice sent bob $10? ok let me just run my 1000 rtx 3080s for 10 hours to verify.. yep you're good"

[@theopantamis9184]

You can verify the transaction with a RPi, mining is only needed if you want to create blocks, anyone can check if his transaction is in a block or not.

[@deoTS1]

@@theopantamis9184 i know, right? even with incredibly helpful explanations like this video, many people won't move past memes and gut feelings into a deeper understanding.

[@vishank7]

@@theopantamis9184 I haven't yet understood the video fully so this might be a dumb question: If there are multiple miners trying to put together a block and only one guy is successful in making one (by reaching the right amount of zeros in the hash), doesn't the work performed by all other miners go to waste?

[@EebstertheGreat]

@@vishank7 All of the work is "wasted" in the sense that it doesn't actually do anything useful. Its only purpose is to make it cost time and money to make a new block. As more people start mining, each block requires more effort to mine and gives less reward. It is a lot like gold mining in that way. If you are mining gold, all the digging you do that doesn't lead to finding any new gold is wasted. But usually there is no way to find gold without wasting a lot of time on misses. The more people mine, the deeper you have to go to find new gold, and the less you usually find. The difference between bitcoin mining and gold mining is that gold has some real utility outside of its value as currency, while bitcoins have no other utility. However, most gold ends up locked away in vaults anyway, so I think it's a reasonably good analogy.

[@mikemian]

To verify requires almost no work, that is to read the block chain to find the transaction. Work is required to validate the transaction, that is to write it to the blockchain. A transaction will typically be written to the blockchain with thousands of others.

[@vishnuvarma8019]

Your truly, truly understand bitcoin and the systems in place now to explain this so well and to draw distinctions. Love your work!

[@davidlevesque762]

This was well thought out and paced. Very helpful and clear. Thanks.

[@MrBauchnabbel]

"To call it astronomicly large would be giving way too much credit to astonomy." My new favourite quote :)

[@neelamverma8167]

No u

[@blackcat5771]

@@neelamverma8167 You ruined everything.

[@SheenylHassan]

Has potential to be a good insult...

[@jaw0449]

As a trained astronomer, I found this hilarious

[@Nylspider]

Make this ur status on AoPS.com

[@Intrafacial86]

Holy balls the lengths these scammers go to are insane! They have full-on conversations under a single comment just to make it seem like the scam they’re talking about is a legit business opportunity XD

[@dylnjshua4256]

I invest with Ms. Fisher

[@dylnjshua4256]

Oh I heard about Ms. Fisher

[@dylnjshua4256]

Yes she made me a lot of money

[@dylnjshua4256]

How can I contact her?

[@bowmin1]

The worst bit is how most are too lazy to set the bots up so they change their profile pictures, so you have a bunch of default picture KZbin users talking to each other. I think even worst than that, is that they DO change the profile pictures of the bots, but they are all really high quality portraits of middle class business people smiling. I've once come across a comment chain that had two bots with the same profile picture of the same man, but under different names.

[@PyroFlameofzwe]

This is the kind of video about blockchain I wanted to watch. Not too confusing for beginners but with a certain level of complexity for already tech familiar audiences. Thank you so much for the video.

[@Dontlikenaimepas]

Totally !

[@dr.ervingalen1777]

i have no luck investing, is so frustrating

[@stvjjgcj]

Even for non math people

[@DerangedTechnologist]

This is crisp, well organized, comprehensible. (You are also clear about the fact that it's not by any means a complete description.) Thank you!

[@bennemann]

The amount of thought and work that went into making this topic as easy to understand as possible (which I believe you succeeded in doing) is awe-inspiring. I don't even need to look at other videos of your channel to be confident in subscribing to you. Looking forward to more of your stuff!

[@Hynasek]

5 years later and I still comeback to this Blockchain explanation to check if my understanding, love it

[@michaelc8022]

I have watched many, MANY, different videos on "what is Bitcoin." This video has been BY FAR the most helpful video. I tip my hat to you my friend, and a job well done.

[@shmendusel]

Sorry to hijack this comment to ask my question, but I'm still kind of confused. Who's giving out the public and private keys? And how does a miner join the network? Like if I wanted to start mining do I need a friend in the network who can connect me? Or is there some bitcoin authority giving out keys and adding them to the network, so they know who to ping if they win the lottery, and so others know the ping them if they've won?

[@EdGeFaLL]

This video is so good that I have come back to it several times over the years and have shared it directly with over 5 people I know. The value of high-quality education such as this is infinite. Thank you for this amazing contribution!

[@matija92]

Agreed!

[@greentoolsnyc3985]

over five people 🤔 6?

[@adarozer]

@@greentoolsnyc3985 7 ?

[@jashshah1033]

@@adarozer imma just make a wild guess... 8??

[@greentoolsnyc3985]

5 1/2

[@mpicewe3023]

By far the best animation and explanation I have ever seen on the ledger/block chain. Thanks!

[@williamclearydenies8605]

If you really want 👆👆👆👆👆👆to meet up with good profit in Crypto trading 👆 👆👆👆👆

[@andrewwhitaker2238]

I’m not smart

[@MiladP]

I like it how you go into the details and don't care how long your videos become. Thanks for not sacrificing details for more short-term viewers.

[@Vitrunis]

Wow that's great. I was like "meh, 25 minutes, that will be a long explanation, I'll try to hang on...", and at the end "already finished???"

[@rajneshthakur3697]

After studying blockchain tutorials, Merkle tree, symmetric and asymmetric keys concepts, I finally found this video which put all the pieces of my learning together in one thread and make me understandable complete picture of block chain workflow.

[@Natalieneptune469]

Every new day, Bitcoin gains support and patronage of more and more politicians, billionaires, finance institutions and institutional investors. Could even surpass the 60k June 2022 forecast.

[@Mcdd7-_-]

Very true. Just recently Fidelity said they have been accumulating bitcoin since 2014, then again, it was announced that the SEC will likely heed to calls for BTC approval come 2023. This shows that whales and smart funds are buying bitcoin quietly, but they won't let the public know. It's such a pity that people are worried about btc not reaching a particular price at a given period instead of securing their place in the future with btc.

[@claradidi7573]

@@Mcdd7-_-How can someone who is just starting out navigate the crypto space? I don't have the heart to see the bulk of my portfolio go from green to red

[@Jme---]

@@claradidi7573If you are a beginner, then you definitely need some guide and tips from an experienced investor or a professional. That’s the most ideal way to launch into the market these days.

[@instinctively_awesome8283]

digital currency is the future of finance, anybody still in doubt of that isn't in touch of reality.

[@itsiwhatitsi]

One of the best channel on YT

[@QuestionEverythingButWHY]

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” ― Mark Twain

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Oh, didn't see you for a while.

[@joeybordeaux7718]

Very true!! Its been quite a while?

[@annabellewood8887]

cryptocurrency is the future, Investing in it now will be the wisest thing to do especially with the current rise!!!

[@segmentsAndCurves]

@@annabellewood8887 Still too soon to say anything.

[@georgepatel9942]

@@annabellewood8887 yeah its really profitable!!!

[@muniverse1]

Such a beautiful Chanel, I appreciate for all this pure, precise and precious information that you put together, I am really fascinated with level of your mathematics knowledge and how you simply and understandibly illustrate it, I used your video to learn about vectors, it was wonderfully explained/tought, I am big fan of you, thank you.

[@marekp6858]

I love how you subtly touched P vs. NP in the process:)

[@sebastianrenemorales1103]

3Blue1Brown Your videos are incredible, I love them, the truth is you are the best

[@arneoduca2915]

Sebastian Rene Morales just had an add of cryptocurrency mining

[@busyrand]

Wow. This was special. I really enjoyed this detailed explanation and the accompanying video about the SHA hashes. Thank you for sharing.

[@mu2k499]

busyrand i

[@bobbygunz9254]

48k reclaim will put bitcoin in a very good position moving forward. The range from 38k-48k seems plausible!

[@viviangall1786]

[@claradidi7573]

[@chris-pj7rk]

[@claradidi7573]

@@chris-pj7rk

[@abhaygautam0]

Thank you very much. I have been wanting to understand blockchain for a really long time. Your KZbin video was really helpful and fun to watch. You are really good at explaining the complicated stuff in a lucid way. You've got yourself a new subscriber. 😁

[@kolos4650]

I mean, that is an instant subscription from me. I've seen only one video, But I can already tell that author really does his research, knows his subject. Animation is minimalistic yet informative, filled with fun with easy to understand examples. Narration is smooth and friendly. Overall, that's what makes a great educational channel on KZbin. Very well done sir, I am sure You're gonna hit 1m sub till the end of this year!

[@FernandoRodriguez-ge2tg]

Kolos he didn’t hit one million but all of that is true.

[@pablososalizama8061]

Hope this channel reaches that amount of subscribes. Even if not, it is definitely amazing in content and form, and shows in a very clear way how "real" math works (which, as we"ve seen here, has many technological applications).

[@kaanylmaz4080]

it is almost 3m now

[@user-rv5qf1ud6j]

3.04M now

[@kysonluka4426]

reach her on teIegram

[@treyhibbard]

I like how the pi symbol can just raise the tail end and we perceive that as frustration

[@matthewryan4844]

12:14 so many different expressions

[@whatsapp-me4049]

Bitcoin is the future of crypto and questions traders ask themselves now is if this is the right time to invest? Before jumping to a conclusion I think you should take a look at things first. For the past few days, the price of BTC has been fluctuating which means the market is currently unstable and you can't tell if it is going bearish or bullish. While others still continue to trade without fear of making a loss, Others are being patient. It all depends on the pattern with which you trade and also the source of your signals. I would say trading has been going smoothly for me after accumulating over 3.2 Bitcoin within a month, With the trading strategy given to me by Expert Liza forbes. She method are top notch and profitable. You can reach her on via WhatsApp messenger + 1 9 1 7 3 9 6 3 9 6 6 ......

[@hadeyveronica8452]

It is great pleasure to meet *bandyhacks* on *WhatsApp* on *937-504-0735* I got free BTC from him weekly👊

[@AhmadSyarif92]

fascinating video as always, I rewatch this second time and still find it very useful to remind me again. did you use only the manim library to create all the animation

[@henrygreen2096]

10:00 "The history of transactions is the currency" interesting Edit: 17:30 I love how I now know what a block chain is, and it wasn't as mind blowing as people on the internet made it seem. And I'm pretty sure blockchains are done in introductory coding courses. (Though not as complex). Edit 2: 18:25 so THAT'S why mining is profitable. I get it now. That circles back to the claim made ~10 mins in. Edit 3: 21:15 So, bitcoin 'authority', in essence, is computing power, and bitcoin 'identity' is the a blockchain made by the original owner? Great video. As you can see I am still shaky on complete understanding, BUT this was the only useful explaination of Bitcoin and crypto I've seen so far (for me). So I am greatful. and maybe this will lead me to understanding others.

[@CaravaggioRoma]

You have a natural gift for breaking down complex topics into elementary concepts and rearrange them to make it easy for the ordinary educated person to understand. The graphics is awesome.

[@hookbeak3516]

I'm old school I spent five minutes shy of two hours writing notes & drawing some of the diagrams to try my best to understand, I'm a home schooled researcher & I'm certainly not academic enough to say I'm a economist. The trust is to place your money & patiently wait - the excitement is watching that initial fee grow. I've never done this before.

[@benjaminb.4043]

This is legit one of the best educational videos I have ever watched. I am stunned as to how you can concisely summarise all the core parts of a cryptocurrency in under 30 minutes!

[@AllInTest]

Peercoin 8$ price ?

[@broccoloodle]

Thank you for the exciting video. The idea about probabilistic consensus based on waiting for the chain to grow before accepting a block is brilliant.

[@dyrwtkhiehomie7887]

Dude you might be one of the best to explain this! Explaining complex ideas in an understandable way is a skill few people have 👏

[@pancakeplateau3953]

Okay so it's my 5th time watching this video. Let's hope I understand it this time.

[@jmaphillips2538]

Good for you, keep trying 👏

[@TambouraBaptiste]

I'm watching it now for the first time. Wish me luck. 🙂

[@serenasmith5946]

Lol don’t feel bad I’m trying to learn in slow motion😃😃😃😃😃

[@frutt5k]

What it boils down to is: if you create a new currency you win. All newcomers loose. A ponzi scheme (aka pyramid game).

[@StraveTube]

Please report back when it makes sense.

[@NizamKhan-nu1xg]

Fabulous and concise video. Thank you.

[@meta04]

@3Blue1Brown Ten minutes times 210,000 is about five months (145 days and 20 hours), so there's that.

[@laukikragji7951]

Another master piece work, thanks for simplifying things such easy to understand way, request you to do more video on alternates to proof of work..

[@duytrinh3367]

4 years later and this is still the only video I need when looking for explanation for the protocol behind Bitcoin…

[@sososong3438]

ur memory cut in half every 4 years 22:50

[@vineetasingh145]

@@sososong3438 mine got cut half just after watching this video 🙂

[@baltakatei]

Because Bitcoin is very slow to change. ☺️

[@TasteMyStinkholeAndLikeIt]

Shytcoin is constantly being hacked and ripped off for hundreds of millions of dollars... absolutely useless stupid trash idea adopted by the dumbest people on errrf

[@peterchua7972]

the

[@nole8923]

This is the best explanation I have seen thus far. Am recommending this video to everyone who has asked me how it works.

[@percales]

Someone being clear, thank you.

[@Giano89]

You do understand that paper money has no intrinsic value exactely like bitcoins right? The only thing that makes paper money valuable is that people believe it has value. If people massively started agreeing that bitcoins have "the same value" as paper money, they EFFECTIVELY WOULD HAVE the same exact value. Are we there yet? Of course not. But that does not change the point.

[@FlipTieYT]

Great explanation, thanks. Im sharing it to everyone right now.

[@richrich9740]

so no1?

[@reggiep75]

Chris Barnatt of Explaining Computers does a good layman filled explanation of blockchain which sneaks ahead of this video, as good as this video is, and I'm inclined to put his video first and this a close second as most gaps and question marks are covered with both videos.

[@tooljockey2777]

Very helpful and simple video, keep it up.

[@coolio6584]

GREAT VIDEO!! Before this I watched some videos about what it is and how cryptocurrency works. But they really couldn't describe how cryptocurrency works. They gave some vague analogies which I really couldn't understand well, Can't really blame them! They might know the thing from core but wouldn't tell it in the video so to make a short and interesting video that will attact and retain viewers. Then I found your video. Hesitated a bit noticing the video length but watched it anyway! I think Now I REALLY understand the very basics of what crytocurrency is how it works. I still have questions Though I know I very likely wouldn't find answers of those as youtubers are oversimplifying things. But anyway a REALLY GREAT video!! THANKS for doing this!!

[@DINESHDD50]

By far the best video on Block chain. Amazing work. Please keep your work going on.

[@dariusdalim8780]

You are a life changer. I am not exaggerating. Absolutely no one can explain complex seeming things simpler than you. You are doing a great service to humanity. Thank you

[@teresatrosell9169]

24hrs hack service on IG, they helped to save my life from debt. Thank you hacksolvent

[@realbignoob1886]

Yes :D

[@robintunley2286]

This is one of my favourite videos, I took so much away from it! Would you be open to doing a similar style of video on the Proof of Stake mechanism that Ethereum will be transitioning to? Keep up the beautiful work.

[@purushottamrawat5186]

Your ability to teach the complex and confusing things in simple and visualisation form is god level🔥🔥

[@borisvadim1488]

Do get in touch

[@MegaMMDL]

Nice to have this explained so calm and clear. Thanks.

[@jihochoi_cs]

This is honestly the best cryptocurrency explanation video that I've watched so far. :)

[@DerMarkus1982]

I totally agree. Never got the system and the nitty-gritty of cryptocurrency into my head - until now, watching that video. It's clear now, I even have bit of a sense of what "mining" really is...

[@WilliametcCook]

When you know all of the channel names he shows at 13:01 except for Welch Labs

[@3blue1brown]

You should check it out! Stephen Welch does some really great work.

[@alexsere3061]

William1234567890123 Cook welch Labs is amazing

[@alexsere3061]

Ralf Schmelcher yeah, also I recomend bingewatching his finnished serieses, he uses some annoying cliffhangers from time to time

[@luizmeier]

The Math Illuminati.

[@JM-us3fr]

It's nice to be a math nerd

[@Chaycetownson]

*I have always had a deep interest in this and would really love to start from somewhere anywhere actually , I believe this is what our future is all about*

[@Chaycetownson]

Using *Virtual crypto mines*

[@kortezhopkins5107]

@@Chaycetownson Wow! Amazing 👉Virtualcryptomines৹com👈 full of greatness.thank you.I will reference its many times over I’m sure no one come close to you with all you’ve been doing since we meet, surely coming back for more my life have turn around now.

[@jujuzinser321]

jesus christ stop with these comments

[@christloen4077]

Stop

[@jamesschoi87]

wayyyy better than any other crypto explanation video on youtube

[@shikhanshu]

this is the ONLY video in the entire world which actually describes what the heck is going on! hats off to your amazing work

[@bhyvhggyvuhuh4371]

Stank

[@HiteshGulati]

At 3:11 Splitwise: "Woah! We have a startup idea"

[@PaleImperator]

Thank you for this piece - it cleared up many of the "But how do they know that..." kind of questions I have about this subject.

[@xherreraoc]

This is by far the best video to understand what a crypto currency is. Concise terms elegantly explained, intuitive and, most importantly in this topic, objective. No "bitcoin goo because bitcoin to the moo" KZbin-1cent-economists misinformation.

[@zeesky1239]

I only understand the ledger part, the rest I need to figure out.

[@Dajlec]

re-watch the video..it took me 3x to get beyond the ledger part with understanding...

[@adamvarghesesatish3337]

Your not the only one who feels like this😭

[@ryanadams3305]

I find the dislikes very interesting. Its like leaving a bad review on an encyclopedia. I don't see any disputes related to the content. Thank you for the true explanation of blockchain. This was undoubtedly a huge effort to research, compile and present. You have earned my sub.

[@divyangmathur]

It's the competitors .. people making similar content or a video on the same topic

[@ryanadams3305]

@@divyangmathur haters gonna hate

[@fezkhanna6900]

I didn't dislike the video; although I will say as a coder I prefer looking at the SHA256 algorithm, or simply importing it into python environment and playing around with it there. I think this video is complex, despite the calming voice and enjoyable animations; I also think a more lucid imagery of bitcoin can be conveyed by explaining the actual code behind bitcoin.

[@zt3853]

@@divyangmathur which is foolish, since the algorithm relies on engagement, disliking still shows that you were engaged with the video, thus boosting it in the algorithm

[@MsEgwene]

@@fezkhanna6900 You're probably not the intended audience for the videos then, as this is a quite typical 3b1b video. I very much enjoyed it, thanks for reminding me to give it a like :)

[@RWAquariumPages]

great and simple explanation of bitcoin and how it works, thanks for this! new subscriber and can't wait to watch more videos from your channel

[@kryt7955]

this is amazing... how subtly you made us understand the topic of cryptocurrency which is otherwise not possible to find anywhere else. this channel is a hidden gem

[@WelcomeTheDamned]

You are by far the best explainer of things I have encountered in my life

[@BatteryAcid1103]

Wow. I've been wanting to know how crypto-currencies work for a few years now. I've done a little research here and there, but nothing ever really clicked. Until this video. You explained everything in just enough detail for it to be easy to follow yet still very informative. Amazing video, 3b1b. Keep up the awesome work. :)

[@szuperrosszarcu]

@@somerealnews6312 I mean I'm a software engineer and still had to watch it twice to fully get it. Give it a couple of more tries if you're that interested.

[@wifiwoney]

This is the most educational video I’ve ever watched thank you so much for real🙏

[@kaanaydn8335]

*Determination is highly needed in stocks trading. What most people see at a glance wealth, a great career, purpose is the result of hard work and hustle over time*

[@nikhileshkumar6729]

One of the best videos so far I have come across that explains the technicality. I just love it. Thank you for this wonderful video.

[@nuccioalex9437]

Sir you join a professional company join.

[@billcampbell9988]

This was excellent; thank you.

[@scottcampbell8368]

This comment was excellent; thank you.

[@pawananubhav12]

Charmander Charmander you are not alone, me too.

[@AllInTest]

yep Excellent Peercoin start Rise up :D

[@williamcollins7128]

I'm new here how can I get more information about it

[@rikkiegieler5638]

CryptoBusy +William collins fyi, that is a scam. Don’t contact that number.

[@OneOfTheManyJason]

A few questions that really confused me: 1. Why don't we remove the reward and have the transaction fee given to the miners only? 2. Seems that it is up to every miners to pick which transactions to be included to the block by themselves. In this case, how do the miners know which transactions are already included in the blockchain? 3. say person A & person B is trading via Bitcoin, do they wait for the transaction to be included into the blockchain before completing the trade? Thanks for you answering

[@theopantamis9184]

1. It will be the case once the halving of rewards will bring it to zero in 2140 (because of floating arithmetic limitation). The idea behind block subsidy (the new coins introduced to pay the miner) is that it is the "fairest way" to inject the money in the system in a spam-resistant way while also increasing the reliability of the network while the transacted value is still low at the beginning. 2. Miners mine over the last block they know, meaning they include the hash of the last block they know in the block template they use each time they try to build a new valid block. That means they know all the transactions that were included in the block up to this last block they know. So they can include any others they know to produce a new longest valid branch of blocks 3. If they use "onchain" payment which is described here yes, B must wait several confirmation before giving to A what he/she paid for or she can perform the attack shown at the end. However, for fast trade we now use a protocol called Lightning Network for which no confirmation are needed.

[@JeffJeffy]

This is still very complex, but on simpler terms. Replaying and taking notes is the only way to understand such information.

[@kasonporter9687]

great video, nice content

[@kysonluka4426]

Can one actually trade alone depending on his self skill, tried to doing that but made a lot of loss...

[@gloriajesse5431]

It's crystal clear why most people lavish in poverty due to ignorance...

[@winbig5887]

| need a ment0r.

[@kasonporter9687]

you can reach her, @investwithmagret on TeIegram

[@alicemollet7181]

On track I'm a living testimony of pr0f magret..,,

[@BenDonahower]

Finally understand the principles. I've watched a number of videos and even read a book. I'm either a slow learner, this is a great video, or both!

[@warriortrading5292]

Thank you for your comment on this video, we'll keep helping you make better trade as much as we can.

[@renataboninhaide4587]

THE BEST EXPLANATION! A melhor explicação sobre BTC que eu ja vi.

[@livinindubai]

Thanks for uploading this! IIf you have a crypto/blockchain series I'm definitely in as a viewer

[@0815funkmaster]

DANG...this still went straight over my head.

[@johns7272]

i know what you mean! i wish i had a brain.....

[@tankofdesigns6898]

funniest sh!t ever LMAO

[@kenm4768]

View it again and again, you'll eventually get it.

[@andrewb2475]

Love the comment buddy..................started to go over mine 4+minutes in

[@childofgod1226]

Lol, Feel the same.

[@kadeksatriadi7845]

Thank you so much for the seeds of knowledge you planted in my brain

[@davea136]

Top-notch explanation, very clear, I shall send this out rather than explain myself in future. I wish I had your gift for teaching. Thank you for your channel.

[@rahmaalghafri8057]

The best explanation i have ever seen for blockchain. Thank you for your hard work

[@abhishekabsam]

are you learning Blockchain?

[@wow5212]

It blows my mind how people were able to come up with this.

[@Sophias]

I'm just amazed... satoshi was such a genius. And more amazing is the fact that he/she/they didn't take any credit for this and left it up to the people to decide. Did he predict the value of bitcoin???

[@wow5212]

@@Sophias I think he believed the potential of the bitcoin and the blockchain technology (well he pretty much invented it) and he mined bitcoin when it was at its initial stage gathering tons of them. Some sources suggest he owns the most BTC eventhough no one knows how much he has.

[@vidblogger12]

As someone who is majoring in Computer Science and is planning to go into cybersecurity, the thing about this field that keeps blowing my mind is just how much work has gone into it. There’s so much that’s been built, so much that’s been done, so much to do. This field is VAST, there’s just so much stuff in computer science! Some of it is popular, some of it is revolutionary, some of it is both, most of it is neither. This creation of cryptocurrency was built off of the work of many people over a long period of time, and the explosion of various cryptocurrencies built off of that. Everything builds on everything else, and it just. never. stops. So much stuff is still being made, and it’s basically impossible to keep up with it all.

[@electronresonator8882]

@@Sophias that Satoshi trying to challenge currencies which runs by the enormous and well established banking system from tiny corner of a forum in internet, at least you know why satoshi disappear when this blows up, I doubt satoshi wants this much fame when satoshi code the program

[@artisit999]

@@wow5212 no one knows Satoshi, so they don’t know Satoshi’s gender(s), so why assume it’s a man? Patriarchy is one hell of a drug, but please say no.

[@bigbrothermex]

thanks for such a detail explanation, I can defenetly say I understand way better what does a bitcoin really means

[@user-vc1iz7ni7m]

one of the clearest explanation. Thank a lot bro!

[@andreasrohrer]

This is by far the best explanation of Bitcoin I have ever seen, many thanks.

[@WillPeterson]

Can you make a video similar to this that explains how proof-of-stake works, or would work?

[@OrangeXarot]

@3blue 1brown warning this is a fake

[@unfa00]

Thank you for explaining this in such a straightforward and easy to follow manner!

[@tilbjornar]

Hey, it's unfa!

[@unfa00]

@@tilbjornar O hai :D

[@isaacchen3857]

And without glossing over anything necessary to feel like you really understand it!

[@oflasch]

Excellent explanation at the perfect level of abstraction. Thank you for sharing this!