It takes some understanding of how the pieces fit together as a whole but Bitcoin is really the first distributed system of trust. Its a new idea but there it is the first digital thing that is unable to be forged and therefore it creates a system where you don't have to trust a counter party.
It combines the following to achieve this [ hashing algorithms as proof of work, public key cryptography, solution for byzantine generals, game theory incentives to secure network and transactions ]
The result is something that is both digital and scarce so it is a novel way to store value digitally.
It combines the following to achieve this [ hashing algorithms as proof of work, public key cryptography, solution for byzantine generals, game theory incentives to secure network and transactions ]
The result is something that is both digital and scarce so it is a novel way to store value digitally.