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Wednesday, October 31, 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of the giant, Bitcoin [BTC]’s existence. While it remains a debatable topic to date, the exposure it has gained since, especially when it comes to its foundation, blockchain technology, is immense.
Ten years ago today, the supposed creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto – who still remains hidden – proposed the idea of a decentralized way of handling money online via his proposal, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic System.”
This paper was all it took to establish what we know today as the crypto market with its practical use taking the form of Bitcoin. Compared to tradition stocks, Bitcoin has managed to bring investors high returns on investment in a short time span. Although the market’s volatility nature has managed to cut its all-time high to a third, this only goes to show the potential it has.
On this day ten years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto changed the world forever when he published his seminal whitepaper and introduced Bitcoin to the world.
If you've never read it, please take the time to do so. It's short and easy to read: https://t.co/GOsfLrEZpi pic.twitter.com/tmuhCuJWhL
— Bitcoin (@Bitcoin) October 31, 2018
As previously mentioned, the digital asset has gained a lot of interest worldwide, as many products, ATMs and other financial services have since been created with it being the center of attention. It is important to note that it was never rainbows and sunshine for the giant, as many naysayers have shut down its concept altogether, with some persisting in their stance to date.
A Quick Look at the Start of Bitcoin
After having published the bitcoin paper, it took Nakamoto some time to officially launch Bitcoin, which is believed to have happened on January 9th, 2009. Nakamoto has been very vocal on his stance against how the bank system works and made the following comment along with Bitcoin’s launch:
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
Nakamoto served as a one-man soldier since the first ever block and transaction were established. Later on, Hal Finney who shared similar emotions towards decentralized systems supposedly became the first ever computer scientist to have received a BTC from the creator himself, as reported by News BTC.
After Bitcoin turned one, Nakamoto decided to leave the project, but ensured that several early followers possessed authority instead of one individual to preserve its nature of decentralization and as of 2010, the one-man army became a complete army with those holding the same view on decentralization as he did.
Some of the First Ever Uses of Bitcoin
It was not until May 2010, where Bitcoin was used for real life purposes, and apparently it was to order pizza. Laszlo Hanyecz was his name and he was successful in purchasing two Dominos pizzas with Bitcoin as the payment method, hence making that respective day the “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.
Mt. Gox, short for Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange became the first ever exchange to house Bitcoin. The launch date was supposedly July 18th, 2010, and in less than a year the exchange supposedly “garnered an average of 70% of the world’s daily BTC volume,” reports News BTC. At some point, Mt. Gox underwent a hack which resulted in the loss of a little under $500 million BTCs, which ended up in a lawsuit due to the number of victims involved.
Current Bitcoin Stance
Who could ever forget the 2017 bubble Bitcoin experienced, better yet, the entire crypto market. Not only did we see Bitcoin reach its all-time high of nearly USD$19,000 on December 17, 2017, just weeks later its price dropped to the 6,000 ranges, which it seems to uphold to this day.
Today, several financial products have been launched in an attempt to encourage institutional investors to enter the market, as it lacks new money and still remains in its infancy stages. The U.S Securities Exchange and Commission (SEC) has been actively seeking ways to define ICOs and the notion of cryptocurrencies, while rejecting several proposed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), nine altogether. This is not to say that the SEC is against the entirety, but rather want to limit hacks and scams while support progress, as they’ve been quoted on many instances.
Just like many investors are incapable of predicting what’s to come for Bitcoin, its future for the time being remains unclear. But, one thing’s for sure, adoption is surely to occur, however whether that it to the extent of fiat currencies is questionable.
What are your thoughts on what’s to come for Bitcoin and digital currencies as a whole? Will we see it take over fiat currencies? Let us know why or why not and how you plan to celebrate this important day in the comments below!
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.