Bitcoin and Decentralized Trust Protocols

Bitcoin is the first decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic currency. It was created in November 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the anonymous author or group of authors of the groundbreaking article [1]. Moreover, Nakamoto released the first implementation of the protocol in an open source client software [2] and the genesis of bitcoins began on January 9th 2009. The Bitcoin protocol is based on clever ideas which solve a form of the Byzantine Generals Problem and sets the foundation for Decentralized Trust Protocols. Still in its infancy, the currency and the protocol have the potential to disrupt the international financial system and other sectors where business is based on trusted third parties. The security of the bitcoin protocol relies on strong cryptography and one way hashing algorithms.