Chains & networks
Bitcoin: settlement, mining and custody
What proof of work settles, and which risks still belong to the services around it.
Research articles and reference entries are published in English. Navigation is available in seven languages.
People & projects
In this article
Bitcoin's base system uses signatures, a public transaction history and proof of work to address double spending without a central payment operator. Nodes validate rules; miners propose blocks. More accumulated work makes rewriting a confirmed history increasingly expensive under the protocol's security assumptions. It does not make every transaction honest or every business accepting BTC solvent.
Where users take additional risk
Holding a balance at an exchange introduces a claim on that exchange. A wrapped Bitcoin token introduces an issuer or bridge. A lending product introduces a borrower and its collateral arrangements. None of these exposures is removed by calling the product Bitcoin.
For a transfer, check the actual network and the receiving service's deposit instructions. An address displayed by a compromised device can still be wrong. A valid signature can still authorise an irreversible payment to a scammer. The network validates spending authority, not the seller's promise to deliver goods.
Read custody choices before treating a platform balance as direct ownership, and the Bitcoin origin entry for historical context.
Sources
Research checked 5 September 2026. Historical cases retain the date and legal status of the cited record.