Bitcoin is the first digital currency; in other words, the first cryptocurrency in the world. It does not work under any centralized banking system. It uses cryptography to control its dealings. Bitcoin is primarily a digital asset that works as a medium of transaction. Bitcoin was invented by a group of people who are known by a single name Satoshi Nakamoto. Now it is a significant currency used around the world.
There were many digital cash technologies prior to bitcoin. Many cryptographers gave an idea about digital based money. Wei Dai's b-money and Nick Szabo's bit-gold proposals are some of them.
The hostname of Bitcoin was formulated in August 2008. In October, a paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto named Bitcoin: An electronic cash system was released. The bitcoin network was materialized in January 2009. Satoshi Nakamoto mined 50 Bitcoins. Programmer Hal Finney was the receiver of the primary bitcoin transaction. It is estimated that Satoshi had mined around 1million Bitcoins in the early days. Then, Gavin Andresen becomes the lead developer of the Bitcoin Foundation. In mid - 2010, a serious security flaw was found. The flaw was that transactions were not properly verified, which may create an indefinite unlimited number of coins. Approximately 184 billion Bitcoins were produced, and it was delivered. Within hours this transaction was located and deleted from the blockchain, and the network was updated to a new version.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the nom de plume for a group of people who developed bitcoin. There were many investigations that happened to know the true identity of Satoshi. There were many suspects who were believed to be Satoshi. But his identity was not revealed. Satoshi was the person behind the development of bitcoin software. He is also the founder of blockchain technology. But his involvement was only up to 2010. In 2011, Satoshi had communicated with a Bitcoin contributor saying that he had moved on to other things. There was a strong assumption that Nick Szabo is Satoshi. But he denied that.
Growth of Bitcoin
- In 2011, WikiLeaks began to consider Bitcoins for their transactions.
- In 2012, CBS legal drama The Good Wife featured an episode based on Bitcoins. Bitcoin foundation was launched. Bitpay and WordPress started accepting Bitcoins.
- In 2013, the US Drug Enforcement Administration listed 11 Bitcoins as a seized asset. People's Bank of China prohibits using Bitcoins. The University of Nicosia has started accepting Bitcoins. Bitstamp becomes the largest bitcoin trading exchange.
- In 2014, the largest bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox suspended withdrawals. A documentary film, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, was released.
- In 2015, A proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium to add a code point for the bitcoin symbol.
- In 2016, the Cabinet of Japan recognized Bitcoins. Bidorboy has launched bitcoin payments.
- In 2017, the bitcoin symbol was encoded in Unicode.
- In 2018, South Korea brought a regulation to reveal the identity of bitcoin traders.
- In 2019, as of September, there were 5457 bitcoin ATMs worldwide. The highest number of ATMs in the United States.
- In 2020, two Indian companies started to quote exchange-traded products. Frankfurt Stick Exchange started quoting the first bitcoin exchange-traded note.
From websites like cryptwerk.com, we get more information about various achievements of Bitcoin.
European sovereign debt crisis and Cypriot Financial Crisis are some of the major factors which have contributed to the rise in the price of Bitcoins. Almost all markets with Bitcoins were in the US until 2013. Some commentators called Bitcoin prices a bubble when the market valuation of bitcoins reached US$1 billion.
A fork refers to a blockchain split. Accidental forks occur as a part of mining. When two miners find a block at a similar point in time, the fork will happen. In 2013, a bitcoin miner running version 0.8 created a large block that was invalid in version 0.7. This created a fork in the blockchain, which led to two transaction logs being formed. In 2017, another two major forks happened.
Regulatory Issues
In 2013, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US issued a report against Bitcoin, stating that it is a virtual currency that does not follow Money Services Business regulations.
Bitcoin faucet
It is a prize system that gives prizes in Satoshi. A Satoshi means the hundredth of a million Bitcoin. It is in the form of a website. If visitors complete a task described by the website, they will be rewarded. Bitcoin faucet was developed by Gavin Andresen in 2010. It gave five Bitcoins per person.
Conclusion
In this article, we go through the history and basic information about Bitcoin. We saw the growth phases of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is becoming a contender to traditional currencies in the near future.
