In 2009, the paper published by Nakamoto in 2008 became a practical project. The first Bitcoin client was released on January 9th and SourceForge hosted it. On January 12th, Hal Finney, one of the earliest adopters, participated in the world's first peer-to-peer transaction. He received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto.
Since then, Bitcoin has experienced a good, bad era. One of the best times for Bitcoin is undoubtedly 2017. When the price rose from $1,000 to $20,000 in 12 months. But apart from that, the currency has also experienced several highs and lows.
The purpose of this article is to look back at the past and take you through the different stages of the bitcoin and encryption markets to see how a currency can disrupt the entire financial institution.
In 2010,
about one million bitcoins were mined during this period. The official value of Bitcoin is the topic of discussion among members of the Bitcoin Foundation, the community responsible for the currency. At that time, about 10,000 BTC was used to purchase 2 pizzas from Papa Johns.
In August, a serious vulnerability was discovered in the agreement, which prevented the transaction from being properly verified. This led to the production of 184 million bitcoins. But soon, it was discovered that the address to which the funds were sent was discovered and the error was corrected.
2011
Bitcoin is still the only noteworthy cryptocurrency so far, but this position has not lasted long. Soon after, new participants came. Namecoin, GeistGeld, iXcoin, SolidCoin and other products were created. As of October, there are 9 currencies.
2012
There are many platforms that accept bitcoin in 2012. According to BitPay, more than 1,000 merchants accept bitcoin, including mainstream platforms such as WordPress and WikiLeaks.
2013
This is the year when people began to take this new currency seriously. Coinbase is a mainstream bitcoin-based payment processor that reportedly sold more than $1 million worth of bitcoin in a month. At this time, a bitcoin is priced at only $22. This success also led to some suspicious transactions, and the US authorities seized accounts related to Mt. GOX. During this period, the US Drug Enforcement Administration also seized approximately 110,200 bitcoins.
As of December 2013, the number of cryptocurrencies soared to 197, with only 38 new cryptocurrencies appearing in December.
2014
2014 is another year of cryptocurrency. More and more people are interested in Bitcoin. Microsoft accepted bitcoin payments for Xbox games and Windows software. Other currencies such as Dell and Newwich also accept the currency. Although the price of 1BTC is between $340 and $450, it has led to the emergence of other currencies.
As of the end of 2014, there were 646 new currencies on the market. Although only a few currencies are still in circulation, their participation indicates the prosperity and confidence of the encryption market.
2015
More than 100,000 merchants accepted bitcoin payments. Earlier this year, Coinbase raised another $75 million as part of Series C financing. There is no doubt that this is a very good year for cryptocurrencies, although the number of new currencies does not prove this fact. At the time, the number of cryptocurrencies did not exceed 800.
In 2016
, cryptocurrency has gradually become the mainstream form of payment and cross-border transactions. Prices ranged from $600 to $780, but at the time there were about 1,000 existing cryptocurrencies. At this time, Ethereum has also become a force to be reckoned with in the field of encryption, and the platform for smart contracts is developing rapidly. Some people in
2017
called this period a year of the rise of cryptocurrency. The value of Bitcoin has increased by nearly 200 times, from $1,000 in January to $20,000 in December. As of December, the total number of official cryptocurrencies on the market was 1341. Although there are several other currencies that are not recognized. In this era, many early investors have become billionaires, and new investors have emerged.
2018
We are still inside, right? So we may have a miracle. But for now, Bitcoin has collapsed and has only reached its highest value of $11,000 in a few months. The average value of the currency is close to $6,000, and experts say there is no clear prediction for the future. As of August 15, 2018, there were more than 1,845 currencies (according to coinmarketcap statistics) and are still growing. We can only wait and see how we will develop next year.
How bitcoin and cryptocurrencies change the world: ICO
ICO is a way to get money through cryptocurrencies, especially for startups associated with blockchain. This approach is similar to an initial public offering (IPO) in which stocks of a particular company are sold to investors. In ICO, companies offer tokens that the public can buy. If the company develops successfully, the owner of the token enjoys the added value of the token they own.
Companies like Grid+ and Ethereum have raised a lot of money through token sales and are becoming more popular in this technology area. Although the same shortcomings of using encryption affect ICO, they are not regulated. Therefore, investors are advised to invest cautiously.
in conclusion
If we compare the growth of Bitcoin with the growth of the Internet, we can say that there is still hope. Considering that Bitcoin had just appeared about nine years ago and the Internet has existed for decades, we have reason to believe that the encryption market can replicate this performance in a better time. However, please remember that the market is fluctuating! This makes it very difficult to accurately predict its price. Remember, you should not use this as a financial advice.