Bitcoin, explained in twelve words

Why people agree on money, what makes it hard to fake and who keeps the record of who owns what.

How thousands of computers keep the same ledger of payments without a bank in the middle.

A private key signs a payment; the public key lets anyone check the signature without seeing the secret.

Wallets hold keys, not coins. Phone, computer and hardware wallets, and what each one protects you from.

Where a payment goes, why a wallet makes a new address each time and how to check one before you send.

What you pay to have a payment included in a block, and why the fee depends on how busy the network is, not on the amount.

A page of payments added about every ten minutes, and why waiting for a few more pages makes a payment final.

How computers compete to add the next block, what that costs in electricity and why it keeps the record honest.

The reward for a new block halves every 210,000 blocks, which is why the total stops just under 21 million.

Checking every rule yourself with free software on an ordinary computer, and what a node can and cannot see.

Writing down recovery words, paper or steel, where to keep them and how to test a backup before you rely on it.

Giveaways, fake support, recovery services and pressure tactics: the tells, and what to do if it happened.