- A decentralized peer-to-peer network (the bitcoin protocol)
- A public transaction ledger (the blockchain)
- A set of rules for independent transaction validation and currency issuance (consensus rules)
- A mechanism for reaching global decentralized consensus on the valid blockchain (Proof-of-Work algorithm)
from: Mastering Bitcoin, 2ed, Chapter 1, by Andreas Antonopoulos
It’s always a lot easier for me to “anchor” an idea to make it stick, when I have some pictures to go with it!