Bitcoin is a digital currency created in January 2009. It follows the ideas set out in a white paper by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity has yet to be verified.
Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments.
Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency: Balances are kept using public and private "keys," which are long strings of numbers and letters linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm that was used to create them.
New bitcoins are generated by a competitive and decentralized process called "mining".
Billionaire investor and philanthropist Henry Kravis is dipping his toe into the world of crypto assets.