So What is Bitcoin? 

Bitcoin is a digital currency, or cryptocurrency, which is a type of currency that exists only in its digital form. It was created in January, 2009, by an anonymous person, whose identity still remains a mystery to this day. 

Bitcoin is all digital, which means that there is no physical bitcoin; it is all kept on balances on public ledgers that everyone has access to. Bitcoin is not backed by governmental or bank entities, which is one of its benefits, as it offers transactions with lower fees, unlike government-issued currencies. This currency operates with the use of a decentralized ledger system. This system is operated by a major amount of computer power, also called a blockchain.

Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin mining is essentially the process of creating new bitcoin by coding a new block to add to the blockchain. This process is necessary to maintain the ledger of transactions that bitcoin is based on. Bitcoin miners are rewarded from creating these new blocks with bitcoin, which incentivises bitcoin miners to accomplish this difficult task. On May 11th, 2020, bitcoin halved its mining reward, from 12.5 to 6.25, which dramatically decreased its supply. With this continued halving, the total number of bitcoin in circulation will reach a maximum limit of 21 million, which will make the currency potentially grow in value over time.

North America's First Bitcoin ETF

North America's first bitcoin ETF launched yesterday, on February 18th, 2021, beating the US to this achievement. While holding bitcoin does have its risks, bitcoin coming into the investing mainstream is a big step for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is still a pretty volatile and risky asset, however---Canada's banks are also working on making and releasing their own cryptocurrency as contingency. The Bank of Canada has spent many years researching digital currencies, but there are still several steps to go through before the Bank of Canada can issue a digital offering, including settling on the technology to use and getting the legal authority from Parliament to do so.