Bitcoin has a hard-coded maximum supply of 21 million coins to create artificial scarcity and prevent inflation.

The protocol hardcodes this limit to prevent fiat-style devaluation, though the final fraction of a coin is not expected to be mined until roughly the year 2140.

Cold storage involves keeping cryptographic keys completely offline to eliminate the risk of internet-based hacking and digital theft.

Miners compete to generate a specific cryptographic hash, which permanently secures a block of transactions and prevents users from spending the same digital coin twice.

Programmer Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 bitcoins, worth roughly $41 at the time, for two Papa John's pizzas to prove the cryptocurrency had real-world purchasing power.

Mining is the decentralized process by which new transactions are verified and permanently recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain.

A Bitcoin halving cuts the reward given to miners by 50%, effectively reducing the rate at which new Bitcoins enter circulation.

This programmed reduction occurs roughly every four years, slowing the creation of new coins to mimic the increasing scarcity of physical commodities like gold.

Before Bitcoin, digital money faced the "double-spend" problem, where a user could theoretically copy a digital file to pay two different recipients.

By reducing the block reward, halving ensures that the total supply of Bitcoin will never exceed 21 million, creating a deflationary economic model.