Just getting started in the cryptocurrency world, learned a lot today. The Bitcoin system is indeed interesting——completely decentralized, with no central bank as an intermediary, and a total of only 21 million coins, a fixed supply. It operates on a proof-of-work mechanism, where miners issue new coins through mining, and all transactions are recorded on the blockchain, transparent and unchangeable. Basically, it's a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, where value transfer doesn't require banks or other intermediaries. This kind of intermediary-free transaction method is something that traditional finance can hardly even imagine.