INTRODUCTION
Those who wouldn't learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes – so here is a brief history of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
1998 – 2009 The pre-Bitcoin years
Although Bitcoin was the first established and gained world recognition as an electronic currency, there had been previous attempts at creating online currencies with ledgers secured by encryption. Two examples of these were B-Money and Bit Gold, which were formulated but never fully developed.
2008 – The Mysterious Mr Nakamoto
A paper called Bitcoin – A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a mailing list discussion on cryptography. It was posted by someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity remains a mystery to this day.
2009 – Bitcoin begins
The Bitcoin software is made accessible to the general public for use.
2010 – Bitcoin is valued for the first time
As it had never been traded, only mined, it was impossible to assign a monetary value to the units of the emerging cryptocu