bitcoin (btc), the world’s first public blockchain crypto token, turns 13 today! btc is a decentralized digital currency that was formed in January 2009 and its true inventor is only known by a pseudonym, satoshi nakamoto.
in january 2009, hal finney received 10 bitcoins as a reward for mining block 70. this was also the first time satoshi nakamoto’s name was heard as the likely creator of the bitcoin network.
Reading: First bitcoin transaction
“the creation of bitcoin is a pivotal point in human civilization. and it will speed up the democratization of societies,” says ajeet khurana, crypto project advisor and investor.
So, here is a flashback to the exciting journey of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency thus far.
2009: first btc transaction
on the afternoon of january 12, 2009, computer programmer hal finney received the world’s first bitcoin mining reward (10 btc) for mining block-70. he received the tokens from ‘satoshi nakamoto’ and since then it has been widely speculated that it was satoshi who created the bitcoin blockchain network as he also published the bitcoin whitepaper in 2008.
“as of today, bitcoin has a market capitalization of over $872 billion and is emerging as a popular alternative asset class among individuals, financial institutions and more,” says nischal shetty, CEO of wazirx .
2010: pizza sold per btc
A year later, bitcoin was still a hot commodity and only enthusiasts and computer geeks interacted with it. but a programmer paid 10,000 btc for two papa john’s pizzas; 10,000 btc would be worth roughly $613 million today.
11 years ago today, a very hungry programmer, laszlo hanyecz, paid 10,000 bitcoins for two papa john pies, marking the first bitcoin pizza transaction in history. Considering the value of bitcoin today, that trade is worth roughly $613 million. happy #bitcoinpizzadaday !
2011: the price touches $1 for the first time
On February 9, 2011, the price of bitcoin reached $1, according to historical data from investing.com. the trading volume that day was only 49,630; a minuscule figure compared to now. furthermore, this was the time when the entire crypto market reached a market cap of $10 million (source: statista).
2012: more use cases; student makes bitcoin-euro vending machine
A student in Germany built the country’s first bitcoin-euro-based vending machine in 2012, according to a post filed by the verge. this was a significant milestone for cryptocurrency, which until then was considered simply as a novel computing technology. The year saw a sudden and rapid jump in bitcoin price and volume. BTC price and volume doubled to $9 and 20,000, respectively.
2013: Market capitalization reaches $1 billion for the first time
In 2013, the total supply of bitcoins was approximately 11 million, while the price was within a limited range with extreme volatility in the latter part of the year. In October, the price of BTC was $196, but it shot up to $1,153 in just two months, the Verge reports.
2014: A bitcoin blockchain-based wedding takes place
On August 5, 2014, a couple from Florida celebrated a wedding based on the bitcoin blockchain. They used 0.1 BTC to host their ceremony at Disneyland, Coindesk.com reported. On December 11, 2014, the world’s largest provider of computer and related services, Microsoft, accepted Bitcoin as a form of payment, in partnership with BitPay, a crypto payment processor, Cointelegraph.com reported.
2015: nyse, mit, white house announce bitcoin plans
This was the year when big corporations and also eminent universities explored the huge potential of blockchain technology and bitcoins. One of the most notable announcements was made by Nasdaq when it unveiled its blockchain exploration plan. In 2015, the MIT Media Lab also launched its digital currency initiative, which was to be led by former White House senior adviser Brian Forde. forde announced the lab’s three main goals in a detailed post on medium.
2016: a revolutionary year
the price of bitcoin jumped 121% from $433 to $959 in December 2016, according to coinmakretcap.com. The highest trade was occurring in China with many Chinese buying bitcoin to hedge against the Chinese currency’s 2016 crash, according to multiple media reports.
2017: ernst & young people (hey) start accepting bitcoin
one of the big four accounting firms, ernst & young (ey) began accepting bitcoins as of January 2017 for its services, according to various media reports. Meanwhile, Jamie Dimon, CEO of US multinational investment bank JPMorgan, called Bitcoin a “fraud.” he later retrieved it. Bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high of $20,000 in March, according to a report from CNBC.
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2018: warren buffett comments on btc
American business tycoon, investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, in an interview with CNN, said that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and others were “rat poison squared”. at the time, bitcoin prices had already surpassed $10,000. buffett said in the interview that he did not have any long or short positions in bitcoin as he did not yet understand the underlying technology. Overall, bitcoin had a rough ride that year and investors saw their wealth erode quite significantly, with many questioning the future of cryptocurrencies. Its value fell 70 percent over the year, according to a report from Coindesk.
2019: btc intraday high hits 40%
Bitcoin prices hit an intraday high of 40 percent, just after an announcement by Chinese President Xi Jinping was made public. he said that they would start exploring blockchain technology for future development in their financial system. He is reported to have said that China should “seize the opportunity that blockchain offers.”
2020: black thursday for btc
On March 12, 2020, the price of bitcoin plunged more than 50% to a yearly low of $4,000. this was also the year that lockdowns related to covid-19 were imposed. Due to the sudden drop in price and there being no breakout mechanism in cryptocurrency exchanges, many cryptocurrency traders resorted to their stop-loss mechanism, which dragged the price even lower. this event, which came to be known in the crypto community as “black thursday”, caused several ripple effects on other crypto tokens. the defi sector, which was particularly reliant on btc to power transactions, also suffered heavy losses.
2021: a bitcoin year
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $68,789.63 on November 10. cryptocurrencies as a whole generated a lot of buzz thanks to celebrity comments. Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted in March that anyone could buy a Tesla car using Bitcoin. on April 14, the price of the cryptocurrency jumped reaching a high of $64,829.14. But later on May 13, Musk tweeted that Tesla will not accept bitcoin payments for its cars due to environmental concerns around cryptocurrency mining. this resulted in bitcoin crashing by nearly 50 percent, cnbc reported.
acceptance, however, was growing. On June 9, 2021, the Central American country of El Salvador became the first to make Bitcoin legal tender. Although the US dollar is still the main currency in El Salvador, cryptocurrencies can also be used for all financial transactions. the president of el salvador, nayib bukele, also announced that his government will build a “bitcoin city” by the sea at the base of a volcano.
Bitcoin got its update, popularly known as taproot, in November 2021. The update helps the bitcoin blockchain perform more complicated transactions, which could broaden the virtual currency’s use cases and make it a bit more competitive with ethereum. to process smart contracts.
On January 4, 2022, when he became a teenager, bitcoin was trading at $46,546.80 at 3 p.m. m., 1.1% less in the last 24 hours.
See also: How Bitcoin Became the Leading Cryptocurrency
