Bitcoin, the Satoshi’s Vision of a cashless peer-to-peer network touched
Bitcoin, the Satoshi’s Vision of a cashless peer-to-peer network touched another milestone, this New Year. It celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its Genesis block which was a major event in the short history of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin came into existence on paper in October 2008, however, the real use of the cryptocurrency came on Jan 3rd, 2009. On this date, the Genesis Block was mined and the miner was rewarded with 50 BTC. The mining reward has reduced to 12.5 BTC as of today. The transaction was recorded on the public ledger which you can see here.
The phenomenal rise of Bitcoin in late 2017 made everyone jump their guns and started to predict that the prices would double or even triple in 2018. However, 2018 only saw the prices to slump to its lowest in years. This sudden rise and fall have started the Bitcoin Bubble debate.
A Brief History
- August 18, 2008 – Bitcoin.org domain was registered by an unknown user
- October 31, 2008 – The Bitcoin White Paper came into Public acknowledgment, titled “Bitcoin A Peer-to-Peer electronic cash system” the initial nine-page document was distributed on the cypherpunk mailing list in November 2008.
- January 3, 2009 – Satoshi created the genesis block, the founding block of the Bitcoin Blockchain.
- January 12, 2009 – The first ever bitcoin transaction, where Satoshi transferred 10 BTC to well-known cryptographer Hal Finney.
- October 5, 2009 – The New Liberty Standard set the first-ever Bitcoin exchange rate against the dollar. At the time, $1 equaled 2300.03 BTC.
- May 22, 2010 – The first ever use of Bitcoin for a physical good. Two pizzas worth 10,000 BTC were ordered by Laszlo Hanyecz.
- February 9, 2011 – Bitcoin equals the value of US dollar, where 1 BTC = $1
- November 28, 2012 – The first halving of Mining reward, where the reward was halved from 50 BTC to 25 BTC per block after 21,0000 blocks got mined.
- November 2013 – The value of Bitcoin reached with the parity of gold, where 1 BTC was equal to the value of an ounce of gold. The price of gold at that point in time was $1,000.
- February 2014 – Mt Gox, one of the biggest exchanges at that point in time was hacked and the exchange shut down it’s trading for over a month over the thefts of cryptocurrencies. In March the company filed for bankruptcy as around 850,000 BTC were lost in the heist.
- December 11, 2015 – Microsoft started accepting Bitcoin Payment
- October 31, 2015 – Bitcoin makes its debut on the front page of ‘The Economist’
- July 9, 2016 – The second halving of Mining rewards, where the amount of BTC reduced from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.
- December 2017 – Bitcoin touched its pinnacle price rise of around $20,000
Bitmex Celebrates the Anniversary with Two-Page Ad in ‘The Times’
When Satoshi mined the first ever block of Bitcoin on January 3rd, he might have never expected his idea to become a legit innovation and a tech of the future. Satoshi Nakamoto might be a mystery, but his idea which is on its way to revolutionizing the financial sector, speaks for the man’s far-sightedness and thinking beyond years. Bitmex celebrated the completion of 10-years of Genesis block, by putting a 2-page advertisement in ‘The Times’. the headlines read,
“Ten years ago today, the first block of bitcoin blockchain referenced the front page of The Times.”
“Turns Out that was pretty Big Deal.”