Now that we know what double-spending is, and how Bitcoin resolves this issue, we are ready to continue further and provide a holistic view of Bitcoin's architecture and ecosystem.
The main pillars of Bitcoin are the following fundamental technologies and concepts:
- Blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT)
- Cryptography
- Consensus mechanism rooted in game theory, which, in this case, is Proof-of-Work
- Peer-to-peer network
- Software code base
We call this framework Bitcoin's five forces.
This framework can be seen in the following diagram:
In the next five chapters, we will delve into the specifics of each of these areas and will explain how they are combined to make Bitcoin's mechanism tick. Stay tuned, as things are getting really interesting!
