The Bitcoin Whitepaper Made Simple

Take a look at this…
To implement a distributed timestamp
server on a peer-to-peer basis, we will need
to use a proof-of-work system similar to
Adam Back’s Hashcash [6], rather than
newspaper or Usenet posts. The proof-ofwork involves scanning for a value that
when hashed, such as with SHA-256, the
hash begins with a number of zero bits. The
WTF
average work required is exponential in
the number of zero bits required and can
be verified by executing a single hash. For
our timestamp network, we implement the
proof-of-work by incrementing a nonce in
the block until a value is found that gives
the block’s hash the required zero bits. Once
the CPU effort has been expended to make it
satisfy the proof-of-work, the block cannot
be changed without redoing the work.”
Yep. This is not a drill.
That’s a real excerpt from the Bitcoin White Paper.
In fact, it addresses one of the most important
elements in Bitcoin.