This is by no means a definitive guide, history or prediction of CRYPTOS , With the platform STEEMIT, there are a lot of first-timers here that are new to the crypto scene and it's good that you have a basic understanding of what cryptos are, where it came from and where it might be going, a lot of people are making a lot of money , so this is a way to learn respect for what we have and to maybe give back to the Crypto-Currency Community and not just think of it as a cash-cow!!
HISTORY!!
The early history of cryptos (bitcoin) is basically what we see in the timeline below
But it actually began back in 1992 , with a man by the name of Timothy May , he was a Intel Physicist, He is the guy that actually started the Ball rolling as he was worried about personal information being attached to transactions and was looking for a way to keep personal information private. But it only stayed a theory!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_C._May a bit of info on the man himself.
It was until 1998 that the technology was developed to be able to create a crypto-currency (or a very early form of it) and was created by Wei Dai and released a currency he called "B-money". When asked why he created B-money Wei's reply was "It was created so that user's couldn't be "taxed or regulated through the threat of force". (I see were this is going!!)
Here in the pre-history you can find bits about Wei Dai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin#Pre-history and here is a site that also has a page http://www.weidai.com/ that has links to software he has written and article's.
Later in 1998 Nick Szabo released his own form of cryptocurrency called "Bit Gold", this currency has accepted as the precursor to Bitcoin as it is similar , although lacks the privacy and security features that the later Bitcoin have implemented .
It use'e a POWto create new currency and for transaction's cryptographically using user's computer power to solve equations on there computer, The whole process very similar to Bitcoin , but a earlier version.
You will find a little info about Nick Szabo in the pre-history as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin#Pre-history and also here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo
Both B-money and Bit Gold never really took off as they had limitations and a few problems , so faded away and died . But as you can see cryptocurrency has actually been on the minds of people for a longtime.(even longer than i thought and I have been in crypto's since 2010, I remember the guy buying that pizza for 10k BTC, YES HE REALLY DID PAY 10,000btc FOR A PIZZA LOL).
NOW WE COME TO SATOSHI NAKAMOTO!!
WHO THE HELL IS SATOSHI??
Well to put it basically NO ONE KNOWS!! There have been many people to claim they know who or that they actually are Satoshi, but to date NO-ONE has proven that they know or that they are Satoshi, they aren't even sure is Satoshi is a man,woman or even a group of people!! (and i actually like it that way).
Here are some of the people that have been claimed to be Satoshi or have claimed that they are Satoshi
Nick Szabo
Dorian S. Nakamoto (He has claimed that he IS NOT SATOSHI.)
Hal Finney
Craig Steven Wright (He reckon he was satoshi , said he could prove , then he couldn't, then he apologised, then he is trying to patent a heap of bitcoin stuff?? IMO he is a fool )
There are many many more and list would take forever (dang I could be satoshi??? lol )
Birth of bitcoin(BTC).
In 2008 a man ( and i use that term loosely, as no one really knows if they are a man/woman or group of people) from Japan that used the name "Satoshi Nakamoto" proposed a new cryptocurrency called BITCOIN!
This is the link to his whitepaper ( there is no way in hell i was typing this out lol ) https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
The next year in 2009 he made Bitcoin open sourced and Bitcoin was launched and BORN!! THE REST IS HISTORY SO TO SAY!!
From that time development has been crazy, new tech, New cryptocurrencies (almost on a daily basis now) new algo's (scrypt,x11,x13,quark,sha-256,scrypt-jane just to name a few), new development tech(anon,asic, asic resistant,new processor chips) and denomiations NXT,CryptoNotes,Etherium plus so many more , the last count there was over 780 active currencies , with 1000's more that have come and gone ! Cryptos money flow goes into so many different industries , like software, electronic's, financial institutions and even education (there are University course on crytocurrencies). So as we can see it is a lot wider than just the web and a group of crypto geeks!!
A good place to look at the active markets is http://coinmarketcap.com/ to find active coins and there markets..
Bitcoins Block 0 https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
There are alot of address associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, but none are confirmed and the amount that satoshi mined has been estimated at 980,000 BTC!! but the total amount will truely never be know!!
So Were is this all GOING??
Well the future is really uncertain, you have governments studying it, is it legal and obviously can they tax it and make money out of it, you have the dark side, scammer's rip off merchants and illegal activities, which brings the authorities into the realm,and then there is the crypto enthusiasts, US basically and Developers , we are the people at the frontline testing everything, creating new tech and system's.
As you can see we are standing on the shoulders of some great minds and we and I am talking about us collectively, have a duty to keep the crypto realm a safe place for everyone, new to it or old timers.
STEEM and STEEMIT, This is the latest platform in the crypto realm, #dan and #ned have put there heart and soul into it !! We all need to make sure that it prospers, not as individuals, but as a community.
I am so not against people making money, that is everyones goal to improve there live and provide for there family and more power to you, but look at it as a ongoing commitment, not a snatch and grab, invest in it, contribute to it and watch it become a powerful and useful tool and platform for everyone.
I hope that to all the new people to STEEMIT and Cryptos finds this info interesting and let me say welcome to you all, your in for the ride of your life!!
