Bitcoin is imagined as a currency for a board game with multiple players keeping identical digital ledgers of account balances. As players trade game tokens between accounts, they update their ledgers to reflect the new balances, then broadcast updates to others to keep all ledgers in sync. This design allows any number of players worldwide to transact directly without central control. By recording transactions publicly yet anonymously on distributed ledgers, Bitcoin emerged as a new form of digital currency independent of traditional banking.