It was 2008, and one piece of news was going to turn the world upside down, maybe not right now, but a little later. On October 31 of the same year, the first cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto, known as Bitcoin, was announced. Today, it remains the most popular and profitable cryptocurrency in the entire cryptocurrency world.
Over the years, Bitcoin has become a watershed for more than a hundred cryptocurrencies trying to open up the market, and over time, mining, illegal trading, and extortion are becoming more common every day. However, despite this, several countries have taken the initiative and established Bitcoin as their national currency.
Despite all the history that exists behind this first cryptocurrency, economists have mixed opinions about what the future holds not only for this, but for all other cryptocurrencies, as their values are constantly changing and there is a huge variation in their stability. Read about virtual currencies and online games here - https://den-store.dk/kasino/virtuelle-valutaer-og-onlinespil-sammensmeltning-af-spil-og-finansielle-teknologier/.
The beginning of everything
At the beginning of 2009, the first block of the Bitcoin network was mined to start its work. This block is called "genesis" and had a value of 50 BTC at the time. The person responsible for its extraction was the creator himself, Satoshi Nakamoto. Genesis was a loophole that was released as an open source license to allow many more users to join the network and then create the world's first blockchain.
The path to mining today is as follows:
- Miners compete to solve a cryptographic problem based on transactions made with bitcoins.
- The miner manages to solve the problem.
- A block of transactions is created, which is added to the blockchain and presented to the network.
- Other miners verify the block.
- After confirmation, the winning miner receives a reward.
- The cycle repeats itself.
However, the first big problem they faced was finding the perfect method to provide value to Bitcoin. Even though this block was mined in January, it took another nine months to determine the first Bitcoin value, which surprisingly was $1 for 1,309 BTC.
The first transaction in the world
In 2010, the first site to buy Bitcoin was created, but this site was not recognized by users interested in Bitcoin and did not have much influence. That same year, a bitcoin user became famous for making the world's first purchase with bitcoins, paying for two pizzas worth the equivalent of 10,000 bitcoins, which was about $21 (remember this conversion because you'll need it later).
The first sites were:
- Bitcoin Market (February 2010, not working).
- Mount Hawks (July 2010 performed well and was sold in 2011).
- Britcoin (March 2011, allows you to buy BTC with pounds).
- Bitcoin Brazil (March 2011, allows you to buy BTC for reals).
- BitMarket.eu (April 2011, allows you to buy BTC for EUR).
Mt. Gox was a portal that allowed you to buy bitcoins and was very popular because it always kept a constant exchange rate and also showed the highs and lows of the BTC price. In 2011, many sites started popping up around the world offering to sell bitcoins in local currency, with the UK, Brazil and Europe in general being the first regions to get the service.
The first historical maximum
This year, 25% of all bitcoins have already been mined, and they reached their first all-time high of $31 per unit, only to fall to $2 per unit at the end of the year. Do you remember the pizza boy? At his peak up to that time, he spent $310,000 on two pizzas.
In December 2012, almost a year after it remained at $2 per unit, it managed to rise to $13 and a few months later it increased its all-time high to $266 and stayed there for only one month before falling to 130 and successively to 100. At this point, people were afraid that due to a large drop in value, the cryptocurrency would disappear completely.
However, at the end of 2013, BTC set a new record high of $1,242 per unit (2 pizzas = $12.5 million). By this time, there was already a technical analysis and, based on historical behavior, a big fall was expected, which did not take long. The price has more than doubled in just one month.
Not only "smart people" were interested in BTC
Criminals were also interested in bitcoins, and in October 2013, the FBI managed to seize about 26 thousand BTC on the website Silk Road, where you could buy everything that was illegal. As the months passed, Bitcoin continued to grow in price and popularity, and major companies such as Microsoft and Dell began targeting the currency.
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