Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, the very first of its kind, designed to work as a store of value and be a major part of day-to-day transactions. The cryptocurrency is backed off of a decentralized technology called blockchain to control its creation and management, circumventing the traditional banking infrastructure.
The history of Bitcoin can be traced back to its invention back in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym of the person or persons behind the invention and implementation of the pioneer digital asset, and his identity is still unknown to date. On 31 October 2008, a paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, was posted to a cryptography mailing list, detailing methods of using a peer-to-peer network to generate “a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust.”
There had been previous attempts at creating online cryptocurrencies with encryption-secured ledgers. Examples of these were B-Money and Bit Gold, both of which never made it past the formulation stage. On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network came into existence with the very first block of bitcoin (block) being mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, which had a reward of 50 bitcoins.
Nakamoto is said to have carried out the mining of about 1 million bitcoins before disappearing from any involvement in Bitcoin, handing over the reins to Gavin Andresen, the lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation.
Now, the crypto industry – facilitated by the rise of Bitcoin – has experienced massive gains. Players can rely on effective trading platforms like https://quantum-ai.io/ to trade like a pro. Yet, it is equally important to discuss the evolution of Bitcoin since its inception. So, let’s dive in!
The Evolution of Bitcoin over the years
2010 – 2015
Bitcoin was valued for the first time in 2010. As it had only been mined and never traded before, there was no monetary value assigned to the cryptocurrency’s units. Retail transactions that are associated with physical commodities were carried out in May 2010. when someone exchanged 10,000 units of mined bitcoin for two pizzas, that volume, in the present day, is worth $357 million. This shows how far the cryptocurrency has grown in a relatively short time. On 17 July 2010, the price of bitcoin jumped to $0.09. About a year later, Bitcoin was valued at $29.60, and following a recession in crypto markets, bitcoin’s price bottomed at $2.05 by November.
On 9 May 2012, Bitcoin’s price had risen to $4.85 and rose again to $13.50 by August. The Bitcoin Foundation was first introduced in September 2012 to “accelerate the global growth of bitcoin through standardization, protection, and promotion of the open source protocol.” In October 2012, over 1000 merchants were reported to be accepting bitcoin under its payment processing service. A month later, WordPress started accepting bitcoins. Bitcoin witnessed strong gains in price in the year 2013. By December, the price of bitcoin spiked to $1237.55 and fell to $687.02 three days later. Bitcoin’s prices slumped through 2014 and touched $315.21 at the start of 2015
2016 – 2021
Prices slowly climbed through 2016 to over $900 by the end of the year. Bitcoin kept generating interest, and the number of Google Scholar articles published mentioning bitcoin increased to 3580.
The number of businesses accepting bitcoin continued to increase in 2017, and the cryptocurrency kept reaching new highs and hit the mark of $19,783.06 in December. This had other entities start developing cryptocurrencies to compete with Bitcoin.
Prices moved sideways for the next couple of years with small bursts of activity. Bitcoin started the year 2020 at $6965.72, reached a new all-time high of $19850.11 on 30 November 2020, and reached just under $29000 before the end of the year. PayPal announced in October that it would allow its users to buy and sell bitcoin on its platform.
Bitcoin started the year 2021 with a ‘bang,’ taking less than a month to surpass its 2020 price record, trading as high as $41,973 on 8 January 2021. The surge in the price of Bitcoin continued in February 2021 when it reached a new all-time high of $50,000, and on 7 November 2021, it hit its current all-time high of $67,549.14. El Salvador also became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender on 9 June 2021.
The evolution of Bitcoin in just over a decade has been a remarkable one, consistently rising in prominence, value, popularity, and adoption.