Bitcoin is now ten years old and it left us many things during this period of time. Back in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper. He decided to send it to a very selected list of cryptographic experts from different countries. These are some of the things that left a mark in the cryptocurrency market in these ten years.
Bitcoin’s Brief History
At the very beginning, just a selected group of people knew about Bitcoin. Most of them did not know how it could even evolve in the future. This is why the first transactions were made to test the network and how the system worked. The first Bitcoin exchange was released to the market in March 2010 known as BitcoinMarkets.
Perhaps one of the most interesting transactions ever recorded on Bitcoin’s blockchain is related to Laszlo Hanyecz. He started a thread in which he asked the community if there was somebody interested in selling pizza in exchange for Bitcoin. And at that time, an individual took the offer: 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC. These 10,000 BTC are now worth more than $63 million dollars.
At that time, the popular Silk Road started to gain more and more users. So as to pay for the illicit things that they were selling there users were paying with BTC. An estimated $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies went through it. One of the founders of the Silk Road is known as Ross Ulbricht.
At that time, Bitcoin surged from $100 to $1200 dollars. Being one of the most important bull runs in the whole history of Bitcoin. However, the bull trend abruptly ended when two important events shocked the markets. In 2013, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) prohibited Chinese banks from using Bitcoin. Moreover, the cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox was also hacked.
During the next years, 2014, 2015 and 2016, several other players started entering the market. For example, several venture capital firms placed their bets on the cryptocurrency market. Coinbase, currently one of the largest companies in the crypto world, raised $75 million dollars.
In 2016, Steam, a very large gaming platform started accepting Bitcoin payments. This was very positive for the whole market since the platform had millions of gamers from all over the world.
In 2017, the cryptocurrency market experienced an impressive growth. Bitcoin started the year close to $1,000 dollars and ended being traded close to $20,000 dollars. This led also to an increased number of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) launching their products to the market. At the same time, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) launched the first Bitcoin futures in the market.
Although the market was growing very fast, blocks were also becoming full as well. Because of this situation, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) separated itself from the original Bitcoin network. Today, both coins, BCH and BTC, operate in the market.
During 2018, the market crashed. ICOs started to fade and most of them ended up without a project at all. Some virtual currencies lost more than 95% of their price, and some of them even reached 99% corrections. Bitcoin, instead, fell close to 65%.
For the future and the coming months, the community is expecting a price recovery. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could approve the first crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Furthermore, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) would be releasing a trading platform known as Bakkt. This platform has been specifically designed for institutional investors that want to enter the market.
Bitcoin has been criticized during these ten years but it has also achieved a lot. There are thousands of virtual currencies in the market and blockchain technology is being used by several companies all over the world.
Carlos is an international relations’ analyst specializing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Since 2017, Carlos has written extensively for UseTheBitcoin and other leading cryptocurrency sites; with over 2,000 articles published.
