TidewaterBTC is the short name for Bitcoin, the way USD is for the US dollar. Bitcoin is digital money that no bank, company or government runs. You can send it to anyone, anywhere, in minutes, and nobody can print more of it. We are neighbours around Hampton Roads learning it together. You do not need to own any, and you do not need to know anything yet.
The quickest way to learn is to ask a person. Groups meet in person all over Hampton Roads, and every level is welcome. The easiest first visit is Sats & Coffee: first Saturday of the month, any time between 8 and noon, at Wegmans in Town Center, Virginia Beach. Just turn up and say you are new.
Next meetup— ——Prefer to start on your own? We have plain-English slide decks that begin from zero, the wallets and tools we hand to newcomers, videos from people who explain it well, and news of who is using bitcoin around the world.
Bitcoin is money, so you can pay with it. Restaurants, shops and services around the 757 already take it at the till. Browse the map, and tell us if you know one we missed.
It never closes and nobody switches it off. These four things are coming straight from the network, right now.
Bitcoin keeps one shared record of every payment, added to in pages called blocks. A new one arrives roughly every ten minutes, around the clock, and the ring fills until it does.
A sat, short for satoshi, is the smallest piece of a bitcoin: one hundred millionth. It is how most people count small amounts. Type a number and see.
Everyone who sends a payment offers a small fee to have it included. When the network is quiet it is a few cents. The needle moves as it gets busier.
Miners run machines that make unimaginable numbers of guesses a second, competing to add the next block. An exahash is a billion billion guesses, and that effort is what protects the record from being changed.
A short history, from a nine-page paper to today. Swipe, drag or use the arrows to move along.
In October 2008 someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a nine-page paper describing digital cash with no bank in the middle.
On 3 January 2009 the first block was created. Tucked inside it is a newspaper headline about bank bailouts, a hint at why it was built.
On 22 May 2010 a programmer paid 10,000 bitcoin for two pizzas, the first known purchase made with bitcoin. People still celebrate Pizza Day.
About every four years the reward for adding a block is cut in half, which is how the supply stays on its fixed schedule. The first was in 2012, and the most recent in April 2024.
The Mt. Gox exchange, then the biggest, collapsed in 2014 with its customers’ coins. It is why people say: not your keys, not your coins.
The Lightning Network opened to the public, a second layer for fast, cheap small payments, like buying a coffee.
In September 2021 El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender.
In January 2024 regulated funds that hold bitcoin began trading on US stock exchanges, putting it in front of a new set of people.
Block —. About — million of the 21 million bitcoin exist. And in Hampton Roads, people meet to learn it together.
Bitcoin has events all over the world. We keep one list of the conferences, festivals and retreats happening this year, with the dates, the places and a button to each event's own site, so you can see what is worth the trip.
See the conference listMemes are how the internet explains things, and Bitcoin has plenty. This is the top of r/Bitcoin on Reddit, gathered in one place for when you want a laugh and a bit of the culture.
See the memesThe country turns 250. This page tells the story so far: the presidents in their own words, how the dollar got to where it is, and the Hampton Roads shore. Then it asks where money goes from here, which is where Bitcoin comes in.
Read the story of the dollarCome to one. Ask anything. No wallet required.
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