#Bitcoin hit news headlines this week as the price of one unit of the cryptocurrency near $10732.58 for the first time...
Although it’s often referred to as new, #Bitcoin has existed since Two thousand nine (2009) and the technology it is built on has roots going back even further. In fact if you had invested just One Thousand US dollars ($1,000) in Bitcoin the year it was first publicly available, you would now be richer to the tune of £36.7 million.
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Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes – so here is a brief history of Digital currency #Bitcoin and cryptocurrency...
1998 – 2009 The pre-Bitcoin years
#Bitcoin was the first established digital currency (Cryptocurrency), 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 digital-currency #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 available to the public for the first time and mining – the process through which new Digital cryptocurrency #Bitcoins are created and transactions are recorded and verified on the #blockchain – begins.
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 cryptocurrency. In Two thousand Ten (2010), someone decided to sell theirs for the first time – swapping Ten Thousand (10,000) of them for two pizzas. If the buyer had hung onto those #Bitcoins, at today’s prices they would be worth more than Hundred million US Dollars ($100 million).
2011 – Rival cryptocurrencies emerge
As Digital currency _ Bitcoin increases in popularity and the idea of decentralized and encrypted currencies catch on, the first alternative cryptocurrencies appear. These are sometimes known as altcoin and generally try to improve on the original #Bitcoin design by offering greater speed, anonymity or some other advantage. Among the first to emerge were #Namecoin and #Litecoin. Currently there are over 1,000- Hundred cryptocurrencies in circulation with new ones frequently appearing.
2013 – Bitcoin price crashes.
Shortly after the price of one Bitcoin reaches One Thousand US Dollars ($1,000) for the first time, the price quickly begins to decline. Many who invested money at this point will have suffered losses as the price plummeted to around
Three Hundred US Dollars ($300) – it would be more than two years before it reached One Thousand US Dollars ($1,000) again.
2014 – Scams and theft
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a currency designed with anonymity and lack of control in mind, Bitcoin has proven to be an attractive and lucrative target for criminals. In January 2014, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox went offline, and the owners of Eight Lacs Fifty Thousand (850,000) #Bitcoins never saw them again. Investigations are still trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened but whatever the story, someone dishonestly got their hands on a haul which at the time was valued at Four Hundred Fifty Million US Dollars ($450 million). At today’s prices, those missing coins would be worth Four point Four Billion US Dollars ($4.4 billion).
2016 – Ethereum and ICOs.
One cryptocurrency came close to stealingg #Bitcoin’s thunder this yearr, as enthusiasm grew around the #Ethereum platform. This platform uses cryptocurrency known as Ether to facilitate #blockchain-based smart contracts and apps. #Ethereum’s arrival was marked by the emergence of "Initial-Coin-Offerings (ICOs). These are fundraisingg platformss which offer investors the chance to trade what are often essentiallly stocks or shares in startup ventures, in the same manner that they can invest and trade cryptocurrencies. In the United State the SEC warned investorss that due to the lack of oversight ICOs could easily be scams or #ponzi schemes disguised as legitimate investments. The #Chinese government went one further, by #banning them outright...
2017 –Bitcoin reaches $10,000 and continues to grow
A gradual increase in the places where #Bitcoin could be spent contributed to its continued growth in popularity, during a period where it’s value remained below previous peaks. Gradually as more and more uses emerged, it became clear that more money was flowing into the Bitcoin and cryptocoin ecosystem. During this period the market cap of all cryptocoins rose from Eleven Billion US Dollars ($11bn) to its current height of over Three Hundred Billion US Dollars ($300bn). Banks including #Barclays, #Citi Bank, #Deutsche Bankand BNP Paribas have said they are investigating ways they might be able to work with #Bitcoin. Meanwhile the technology behind #Bitcoin – #blockchain – has sparked a revolution in the fintech industry (and beyond) which is only just getting started.
Whatever our opinion on Digital currency #Bitcoin and cryptocurrency – and educated commenters have described them as everything from the #future of money to an outright #scam – it seems they are here to stay. Will it succeed in doing what many early adopters and evangelists claim it is destined to – replace #government-controlled, centralised money with a distributed and decentralized alternative, controlled by nothing besides market forces? Well, Two Thousand Eight (2018) may yield some clues but we are unlikely to know the answer for some time yet...
