Welcome to the world of Cryptocurrency
Bitcoins History - the world's first decentralized and digital cryptocurrency
Welcome to the world of Cryptocurrency
Bitcoins History - the world's first decentralized and digital cryptocurrency
BITCOINS HISTORY
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We go back to the beginning and take a look at Bitcoins history - the world's first cryptocurrency.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin, also known as cryptocurrency, is a virtual currency, or a digital currency - based on blockchain technology. Essentially, Bitcoin is an online version of cash. You can use it to buy services or products and it is also an investment vehicle into this new asset class.
Bitcoin does not exist in physical form, it is represented by balances kept on a public ledger which is completely transparent and can not be tempered with due to it being on a blockchain. Bitcoins are completely decentralized and are not backed by any government or banks. The evolution of Bitcoin created the emergence of this new asset class - cryptocurrency.
How was Bitcoin created?
How was Bitcoin created?
How was Bitcoin created?
Bitcoin was the first implementation of cryptocurrency, which was first described by Wei Dai in 1998 on the cypherpunks mailing list. It was suggested as a new form of money that used cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority like a bank.
The first specification of Bitcoin and proof of concept was published in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto in a cryptography mailing list. And so, Bitcoins history began.
Since then, the community has grown enormously, with many developers working on Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin protocol and software are published openly, so any developer can review the code or make their own version of the software.
How does Bitcoin work?
How was Bitcoin created?
How was Bitcoin created?
Each Bitcoin is a computer file that is stored in a digital version of a wallet on your computer or smartphone. You can send Bitcoins to your digital wallet or to other people. Every transaction that is made in with Bitcoin is recorded in the blockchain, which is a public list. This means that the history of Bitcoins can be traced, in order to prevent people from spending coins that don’t belong to them, undoing transitions, or spending copied coins.
How do I buy Bitcoin?
How was Bitcoin created?
How do I buy Bitcoin?
You can buy them with real money. Another way is to sell things and ask for Bitcoin as payment. Finally, you can create them with a computer.
Many businesses and individuals use the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and the numbers of adopters continue to grow. Many popular online services use Bitcoin, but so do some physical businesses, including shops, restaurants, and apartments. While Bitcoin is still relatively new, it is growing all the time.
What is a Bitcoin Halving?
Bitcoin halving is when the reward for mining new blocks is halved. This means that miners receive 50% fewer BTC for transactions they verify. Throughout Bitcoins history, the halving event has happened once every 210,000 blocks, which is roughly every four years and will continue to take place until the maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins has been released.
This is an important event for traders, as it reduces the number of new bitcoins that are generated by the network. The supply of new coins is then limited, which could cause prices to rise if the demand for coins is still strong. The circumstances around each halving are different, and the demand for bitcoin can vary wildly. However, so far, demand has remained strong before and after previous halvings, so prices have increased rapidly.
Will the finite number of Bitcoins be a problem?
Bitcoin is unique when compared to other currencies, as only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created. However, this is not, and will never be a limitation, as transactions can be denominated in smaller sub-units of a bitcoin, such as bits. There are 1,000,000 bits in 1 bitcoin. Bitcoins can be divided up to 8 decimal places, and potentially into even smaller units if this is ever needed in the future.
Why do people trust Bitcoin?
One of the main reasons that people trust Bitcoin is because it doesn’t actually require any trust. Bitcoin is open-source and decentralized. Anyone can access the entire source code at any time, which means any developer can verify how Bitcoin works. All transactions and Bitcoins can be consulted in real-time, transparently, by anyone.
All Bitcoin payments can be made without reliance on a third party. The system is protected by peer-reviewed cryptographic algorithms, similar to those used for online banking. Nobody can control Bitcoin and the network remains secure.
Is Bitcoin secure?
Bitcoins history has shown a strong track record with security and the network is possibly the largest distributed computing project in the world. The most common vulnerability of Bitcoin is user error, such as accidentally deleting or losing the private keys to a Bitcoin wallet, or having them stolen.
BITCOIN AS AN INVESTMENT
As time goes on, and as people are increasingly on the lookout for investment opportunities that predict future trends, and which step outside of the usual investment frameworks on offer, Bitcoin has inevitably been attracting more attention.
Whenever people think of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is likely to be the first type that springs to mind, and for good reason.
Here are a few things to keep in mind about Bitcoin as an investment opportunity:
Bitcoins history of increasing value over time
Although it might seem difficult to believe, Bitcoin has only been around publicly since 2009. What is likely to be far, far harder to believe, however, is that the first real-world Bitcoin transaction happened in 2010 when a Bitcoin miner exchanged 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas from Papa Johns.
There’s no better way of underscoring the magnitude of the appreciation in value that Bitcoin has enjoyed over time, than by contrasting that initial transaction to the value of Bitcoin as of this writing, in June 2020.
Bitcoin trading really took off in 2013, beginning the year at a cost of $13.50 per Bitcoin. The price then rallied in early April of the same year to $220, and dropped back down to $70 by the middle of April.
In November 2013, the price went from approximately $200 to over $1075.
This pattern of meteoric rises and falls in price has persisted, more or less, over the intervening years. Fortunes have been made on Bitcoin, whereas other investors have found themselves losing a lot of money. Consistently, though, Bitcoin has attracted attention and has been trending consistently in the direction of greater value over time.
Here are a few of the investment benefits of Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general:
Independent of any one nation's economy
While the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might vary significantly from time to time, these currencies are largely independent from any one nation’s economy. They are therefore “resilient” in the sense of operating somewhat in their own ballpark.
Entirely digital, and easy to track and accumulate autonomously
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be easily accumulated and stored autonomously, by individuals, without the need for complex social infrastructure such as banks.
This makes Bitcoin a very “lightweight” and beneficial investment option for people who particularly value self-reliance.
Likely to grow further in use and popularity as time goes on
As the world becomes increasingly digital, and as Bitcoin continues to appreciate in value, there is every reason to think that this cryptocurrency – and others – will grow in use and popularity as time goes on.