bitcoin (P2P electronic cash system) Bitcoin is a free open source peer-to-peer electronic cash system that is completely decentralized, without the need for a central server or trusted parties. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of a P2P network to check for double-spending. Bitcoin Core connects to the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network to download and fully validate blocks and transactions. Please make sure to read the release notes first before upgrading: https://bitcoincore.org/en/releases/29.0/ zeromq is an optional dependency (autodetected).