Leveraging the breakthroughs of public-key cryptography, bitcoin also uses peer-to-peer networking to operate without a central authority whereby the new issuance and transaction verification functions are carried out collectively by the network.

FORBES: Bitcoin Foundation Launches To Drive Bitcoin's Advancement

Research conducted by Adi Shamir, one of the pioneers of the RSA algorithm for public-key cryptography which forms the basis of online security today indicates that bitcoin markets indicated that all the large bitcoin transactions over the past few years seem to have the same originating source, related to a single large transaction that took place in November 2010.

FORBES: Bitcoin Ready To Go Mainstream With First U.S. Exchange