For beginners

Bitcoin SV explained

Bitcoin SV (BSV for short) is digital cash: you can send it to anyone almost instantly, without a bank, for a fraction of a cent. Here you will learn how it works and what the words you come across mean.

Start at the beginning Glossary

About 10 minutes to read. No prior knowledge needed.

BYour walletExample

199 sat

Gift+500 sat

Payment−300 sat

Transaction fee−1 sat

In short

Bitcoin is digital cash. You send it directly to the person you mean it for. There is no bank in between.
Bitcoin SV (BSV) is one version of bitcoin. It was made for paying cheaply and quickly, even very small amounts.
The sat is bitcoin's small change. 1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 sat.
Your wallet manages your money. Each wallet has a secret key: whoever holds the key owns the money.
Every payment goes into a public ledger. This is the blockchain. Anyone can check it, but your name is not in it.

1What is bitcoin?

Money that exists only on the internet and needs no bank.

When you hand someone cash, nobody stands between you. Bitcoin does the same on the internet: you send, the other person receives. No bank account, no permission and no opening hours are needed.

At a bank, the bank keeps track of who has how much money. With bitcoin, a public ledger does this, kept and checked together by many computers around the world. Nobody can rewrite it alone.

There can never be more than 21 million bitcoins. The system itself enforces this rule, so nobody can "print" more at will.

Where did it come from?

The plan for bitcoin was published in 2008 by someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, under the title "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". The network started in January 2009. Who Satoshi is remains unknown to this day.

2What is Bitcoin SV?

The original idea of bitcoin, put into practice: fast, cheap digital cash that anyone can use.

Over the years a debate arose about which way bitcoin should develop. The debate ended in a split twice, so today three well-known currencies carry the bitcoin name:

Name	Symbol	Separate since	Main goal
Bitcoin	BTC	2009	Store of value, "digital gold"
Bitcoin Cash	BCH	August 2017	Payments
Bitcoin SV	BSV	November 2018	Cheap payments and data storage, at large scale

SV stands for "Satoshi Vision". The name says that BSV wants to stay true to the original plan: electronic cash that anyone can use.

A shared past, three branches

The three currencies share the same past. Until 2017 there was only one bitcoin, with a single ledger. The BSV ledger still contains every block from the very first one in 2009. So BSV has the same bitcoin history as the other two; it simply has fewer supporters today.

It is like three branches of a young fruit tree that has just been planted. Time and the gardener decide which branch finally becomes the tree. It may well be the small branch that bears the most and the tastiest fruit.

What are its strengths?

Practically instantA payment arrives in a second or two. No queues, no banking days.

Almost freeA transfer costs a fraction of a cent. That is why even a few sat are worth sending.

Handles huge volumeThere is no tight block size limit. Gigabyte-sized blocks have already been made, and on some days the network has processed tens of millions of transactions.

Predictable rulesThe basic rules are fixed and do not change on a whim. Anyone who builds on it can plan for the long term.

More than moneyData can be written into a transaction. That makes the ledger useful for proof, timestamps and records too.

For everyoneNo bank account, permission or registration needed. A phone or a browser is enough.

Why does block size matter? BTC blocks are still limited to roughly 1 megabyte of base size, so only a few transactions fit and fees are higher. It is a bit like sticking to the floppy disk despite all the progress in data transfer and computing. BSV removed this limit: a block can be as large as it needs to be.

What can it be used for?

Paying online, even just a few sat: for an article, a song, a feature.
Tips and gifts, with no middleman, in a single tap.
Sending money anywhere in the world, as fast and cheaply as next door.
Tickets, coupons, loyalty points that cannot be forged.
Proof: it can show when a document existed and that it has not changed since.
Payments between machines, for example at a charging station or for parking.

More in the What else is it good for? section.

Important: these are three separate currencies.

BTC, BCH and BSV are separate networks with separate prices. Their addresses look alike, so be careful: send only BSV to a BSV address. Money sent on the wrong network can easily be lost.

3Sat

Bitcoin's small change, like the cent is to the dollar.

Sat is short for satoshi. It is the smallest unit of bitcoin; there is no smaller amount.

1 BSV=100,000,000 sat

For small amounts we count in sat, because it is simpler to say 500 sat than 0.000005 BSV.

Example with a round number: if 1 BSV were worth 50 US dollars
Sat	BSV	Value
1 sat	0.00000001	$0.0000005
500 sat	0.000005	$0.00025
100,000 sat	0.001	$0.05
100,000,000 sat	1	$50

The exchange rate changes all the time; the table above is only an example. The ratio of sat to BSV never changes.

4Wallet

A program that keeps your key safe and uses it to pay for you.

The wallet shows your balance, gives you an address where you can receive money, and sends your payments. It can be built into a website, be a phone app or a small separate device.

The money is not actually in the wallet. The ledger records how much belongs to each address. The wallet keeps the key that lets you spend that money. So as long as you have your key, you can restore your wallet any time, anywhere.

You can have as many wallets as you like.

Just as you can own several purses, you can have any number of BSV wallets: one on your phone, another on a website. Each wallet has its own key and its own address, and they are independent of each other. You can send money between your wallets just as you would to anyone else.

5Address

This is where you receive money. It is like a bank account number.

An address is a string of letters and digits, usually starting with 1. This, for example, is the very first bitcoin address, from 2009:

Example1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

You can safely give it to anyone. An address only lets people send to you, not take from you.
Don't type it, copy it. A single wrong character is a problem. Use the Copy button or the QR code.
An address is public. Anyone who knows it can look up in the ledger how much arrived at it and left it.

This is only an example of what an address looks like. Do not send anything to it.

Sometimes you don't even need an address: HandCash

HandCash is a popular BSV wallet for phones. Everyone there picks a short name that starts with a dollar sign, for example $annasmith. To send someone money, you just type this name; no need to copy a long address.

Behind the scenes the same thing happens: the wallet looks up the address that belongs to the name, and the transaction goes there. The name just makes life easier, the way you look up a name in your phone instead of a number.

$annasmith is only a made-up example. To use HandCash you need to register in the app. handcash.io

6Key

Your wallet's secret password. Whoever holds the key owns the money.

The key (in full: private key) is a long, random secret number. Your wallet uses it to sign your payments. Your address is made from the key, but not the other way round: nobody can work out the key from the address.

🔑Keysecret, only yours

📬Addresspublic, can be shared

A wallet can show the key in different forms: as one long string of characters, or as 12 simple words. Both do the same thing, and the same rules apply to both.

Three rules

Never give it to another person. Whoever has your key can take your money. Genuine customer support never asks for a key.
Back it up. If the key is lost, so is the money. There is no "forgot password" button and nobody who can give it back.
Don't keep it where others can see it. Don't send it by email or chat, and don't upload a photo of it to the cloud.

7Transaction

One payment: a signed message saying this much money goes from here to there.

When you pay, your wallet writes a short message, signs it with your key and sends it to the network. The network checks that the signature is valid and that you really have that much money.

1SigningYour wallet signs the payment with your key.
2NetworkIt reaches the recipient practically instantly. The payment is done.
3BlockLater, within 10 minutes on average, it is also written into the ledger.
4FinalIt stays there forever, and anyone can check it.

Every transaction has an ID. It is a 64-character code, txid for short. You can use it to look up the payment.
A confirmation means that the transaction has been included in a block. Each new block adds one more confirmation.
It cannot be reversed. There is no bank to call it back. Always check the address and the amount before sending.

8Fee

A few sat the network receives for recording your payment.

Every transaction has a fee. It goes to the computers that keep the ledger; they are called miners. The fee does not depend on the amount, but on how much space the transaction takes up in the ledger.

On BSV, a simple transfer usually costs between 1 and a few dozen sat. That is a fraction of a cent, which is why you can even pay 50 sat for something here.

9Blockchain

Bitcoin's public ledger: every payment is in it, and it cannot be rewritten.

Transactions are collected into packages called blocks. A new block is made every 10 minutes on average. Each block contains the fingerprint of the previous one, so they form a chain: if someone rewrote an old block, every block after it would break, and everyone would notice.

It exists in many copies. Many computers around the world store and check the same ledger.
Miners keep it. They put transactions into blocks. For their work they receive the fees and the reward for each new block.
Public, but without names. The ledger contains addresses and amounts, not names. This is not full anonymity: if someone knows an address is yours, they can see its activity too.

10WhatsOnChain

A website where anyone can look into the BSV ledger.

WhatsOnChain is a so-called block explorer. You type in an address or a transaction ID, and it shows what the ledger knows about it. No registration needed.

For a transaction: when it happened, where it went from and to, the amount and the fee, and how many confirmations it has.
For an address: how much money is on it now, and which payments arrived at it or left it.

That is why we say that with bitcoin you don't have to take anything on trust: you can check for yourself.

whatsonchain.com

11Key backup and restore

With your backed-up key you can get your wallet back any time, on any device.

The key of a wallet built into a website is stored in your browser. If you clear your browser data, change phones or use another browser, the key won't be there. That is why you need a backup.

How to back it up

Open your wallet and find the option to show the key.
Write it down on paper, exactly, character by character. Or save it to a file and keep it somewhere only you can access.
Check once more that you wrote it down correctly.
Keep it somewhere safe. For larger amounts, keep two copies in two different places.

How to restore it

Open the wallet on the new device or browser.
Choose restore and enter your saved key.
The same address and the same balance appear, because the money was in the ledger all along.

Only enter your key where you trust the wallet.

When restoring, you enter the key yourself, of your own accord, in the wallet you want to use. If a website, email or message asks you for it out of the blue, it may be a scam. Be especially careful with large amounts.

12Safety

You look after your own money. That is freedom, but also responsibility.

Don't give your key to anyone. Not to a friend, not to "customer support". Only enter it on a website if you want to restore your wallet there and you trust the site.
Start small. Learn and practise with a few sat before you move larger amounts.
Check before sending. Is the address right? Is the amount right? Is it BSV going to a BSV address? A transfer cannot be undone.
For larger amounts, send a test first. Send a little and check that it arrived.
Don't believe in getting rich quick. Anyone who promises guaranteed returns or to double your money is a scammer.
The price goes up and down. The value of BSV in your currency can change a lot in a short time, downwards too. Only keep as much in it as you can afford to lose.

13What else is it good for?

Far more than you might think: when a payment is almost free and instant, new things become possible.

You can't pay one cent by card, because the fee would cost more than the amount itself. On BSV you can. A payment costs a fraction of a cent, arrives practically instantly, and the network can handle enormous volume. This is not just cheaper money transfer, but a whole range of possibilities that simply did not pay off before.

Micropayments onlineA few sat for an article, a video or a song. You only pay for what you actually use, with no subscription and no registration.

Tips for creatorsLiked a post, a picture, a song? With one tap you can send a few sat, and all of it goes to the creator.

Transfers anywhere in the worldAbroad is as fast and cheap as next door. No banking days, no weekends, no conversion fees on the network.

A few sat instead of adsA website can ask for a few sat for its content instead of ads and data collection. You decide what is worth it to you.

Games and rewardsIn-game items, prizes and points that are truly yours and have real value.

Tickets, coupons, loyalty pointsA ticket, voucher or loyalty card that cannot be forged and can be passed on from your phone instantly.

Proof and timestampsThe fingerprint of a document or photo can be written into the ledger. Later you can prove to anyone that it existed then and has not changed since.

Traceable goodsA product's journey from factory to shop can be recorded step by step, and nobody can rewrite it afterwards.

Machines that pay each otherA charging station, a parking meter or a sensor can settle up every second with a few sat, with no human involved.

Data that lastsText and data can be written into a transaction. Once it is in, it cannot be quietly deleted or falsified.

Some of these already work today; others are still possibilities for which the technology is ready.

14Frequently asked questions

Where do I get BSV?

Someone can send it to your address. Larger amounts can be bought on a crypto exchange for your local currency.

Do I need to register or have a bank account?

Not for the wallet. Creating a wallet needs no name, email address or bank account. Exchanges ask you to register if you buy or sell BSV for ordinary money.

What if I lose my key?

If you have no backup, that money is lost. Nobody can give it back, because nobody but you had the key. That is why you need a backup.

Can I get back what I sent to the wrong address?

Not from the network. Only the owner of that address can send it back. If the address belongs to nobody, the money is lost.

How long until it arrives?

Practically instantly. The recipient's wallet shows the money within a second or two, and in practice the payment is done. You don't have to wait for anything.

In the background, the transaction is later also included in a block, within 10 minutes on average. This is the final record in the ledger, but for everyday payments you don't need to wait for it.

Is bitcoin anonymous?

Not quite. There are no names in the ledger, but the activity of every address is public. If it turns out that an address is yours, the payments linked to it can be seen too.

Is BSV the same as BTC?

No. They share a past, but they have gone separate ways since 2017, and today they are separate currencies with separate networks and prices. You cannot spend BTC as BSV, or the other way round.

Who invented bitcoin?

Someone who wrote under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Who that is, we still don't know. Craig Wright, a former supporter of BSV, claimed to be Satoshi, but in 2024 a London court ruled that he is not.

What is mining?

Keeping the ledger. Miners' computers collect transactions into blocks. For a block to be valid, a lot of computing work has to be done, which makes it so hard to tamper with later. The work is rewarded with the fees and the reward for each new block.

Do I have to pay tax on it?

Profits from cryptocurrency may be taxable, depending on the country you live in. For larger amounts, ask a tax adviser. This site does not give tax advice.

Is it worth investing in?

This site does not give investment advice. It shows how BSV works as a means of payment. Its price fluctuates strongly.

15Glossary

Address: Where money can be sent. Public, can be shared.
Balance: How much money belongs to your wallet right now.
Block: A package of transactions. One is made every 10 minutes on average.
Blockchain: The sequence of blocks linked to each other, in other words the public ledger.
BSV: The short symbol for Bitcoin SV, like USD for the US dollar.
Confirmation: Shows that the transaction has been included in a block.
Fee: A few sat the miner receives for recording the transaction.
HandCash: A BSV wallet for phones where you can send to a name starting with $ instead of a long address.
Key: Private key: the wallet's secret. Whoever has it can spend the money.
Miner: Someone who keeps the ledger: puts transactions into blocks and receives fees for it.
QR code: A square pattern from which a phone camera reads the address. No typing needed.
Sat: Satoshi: the smallest unit of bitcoin. 100,000,000 sat = 1 BSV.
Transaction: One payment in the ledger.
Txid: The 64-character ID of a transaction.
Wallet: A program that keeps the key, shows the balance and pays.
WhatsOnChain: A website where the BSV ledger can be browsed.