*Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
*Unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin is created, distributed, traded and stored with the use of a decentralized ledger system known as blockchain.
*Bitcoin's history as a store of value has been turbulent; the cryptocurrency skyrocketed up to roughly $20,000 per coin in 2017, but as of two years later, is currency trading for less than half of that.
*As the earliest cryptocurrency to meet widespread popularity and success, Bitcoin has inspired a host of offshoots imitators.
