Bitcoin 101

You can buy a fraction of a bitcoin

One bitcoin costs over $65,000 USD, but you don't need a whole coin.

A dollar is made up of 100 cents. A bitcoin is made up of 100,000,000 smaller units called satoshis (or "sats"). You can buy exactly as much as you want, whether that's $10 or $10,000 worth. Fractional ownership is built in.

Bitcoin moves value anywhere in the world - easily and cheaply

Tried sending $50 to someone in another country? Then you know: it's slow, expensive, and frustrating. Government money wasn't designed to cross borders.

Bitcoin doesn't care about borders. Sending bitcoin to your neighbour costs the same as sending it to someone on the other side of the planet. Think of it as combining email and gold: internet-native money that travels at the speed of information.

Anyone can use Bitcoin - even without a bank account

One in three people on earth can't open a bank account. Banks need profitable customers. If you don't fit the model, you're locked out of the digital economy.

Bitcoin changes that. A wallet is free. Anyone with a phone can use it. No approval required.

Bitcoin is built to be secure

Bitcoin security works on two levels.

First, wallets and transactions are encrypted. A Bitcoin wallet has never been hacked, and the math behind it makes hacking one effectively impossible.

Second, thousands of computers worldwide constantly verify every transaction. Adding a fraudulent transaction is slow and astronomically expensive. Catching and rejecting one is fast and cheap. The network is self-policing by design.

The result: a network worth over $1 trillion that has never been successfully attacked.

Inflation is a choice - Bitcoin's scarcity isn't

Most western governments target 2% annual inflation. In plain terms: your money is designed to lose value over time. Recent years have made that very visible.

Bitcoin is different. The total supply is capped at 21,000,000 bitcoin. No government, no company, no one can print more. What you hold today represents a fixed share of a fixed supply, forever.

That's what makes Bitcoin the best long-term savings tool available. It's the only money with a supply nobody can manipulate.

Key terms to know

• Wallet: Software that stores your private keys and lets you control your bitcoin
• Private key: The secret code that proves ownership of your bitcoin
• Public key / Address: Your Bitcoin "account number" for receiving funds
• Block: A batch of transactions added to the blockchain roughly every 10 minutes
• Halving: Every ~4 years, the rate of new bitcoin issuance is cut in half

How to get started

Step 1 - Learn: Understand the basics of Bitcoin, economics, and why it matters

Step 2 - Set up: Create a self-custody hot wallet and back it up

Step 3 - Buy: Use a platform that sends bitcoin directly to your personal wallet, like Bitcoin Well

Step 4 - Use it: Start small. Make a few transactions. Get comfortable.

Ready to begin? 
Sign up for Bitcoin Well and start buying bitcoin today

(updated for 2026 by Zach Addair)