Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin - a cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology in 2009. October 31st marks as the date when Bitcoin’s whitepaper was released that stated: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

The identity of the creator till dates remain anonymous but the work he left behind is beyond its ‘work of merit’, it changed the face of digital money while its underlying technology is a breakthrough. It catalyst the introduction of over a thousand cryptocurrencies and many blockchain projects.

The history and present of cryptocurrency are volatile - that’s like the nature of crypto, however, like every coin has two sides - we would like to call it - controversy and evolutional. It is the 21st century, new discoveries happen every day but cryptocurrency and its technology have left its mark eternally. 

We dedicate this blog, to Bitcoin: its 11 years journey: 

August 18th 2018, the domain - bitcoin.org was introduced by an anonymous entity that consisted bitcoin’s protocol, post which, in October 31st 2008, its whitepaper was released titled - Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, while on the cypherpunk mailing list the initial page document was distributed on November 2008. Nakamoto created its Genesis Block of Bitcoin blockchain on January 3rd 2009 and on January 12th 2009 - the first bitcoin transaction was made between Nakamoto and Hal Finney wherein Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to Finney.
New Liberty Standard set the first bitcoin exchange rate on October 5th 2009 wherein 1$ = 2300.03 BTC. 
The first bitcoin transaction took place on May 22nd 2010 when Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas from Papa Johns for 10,000 BTC in Jacksonville, Florida.

Bitcoin’s first high and low

Bitcoin reached parity on October 9th 2011 when its ratio with US dollar was 1:1 and in just 4 months it plunged from $1 to $31.91, however, just in our days - bitcoin dived down to a value of $10.25.
Bitcoin’s all-time high has been approx $20,089 on December 18th 2017.

Also Read, The Journey From Barter To Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s first halving

The first halving of bitcoin occurred in November 28th 2012 resulting to block reward halving from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. Bitcoin will continue halving after every 210,000 blocks until its last bitcoin is stated to be mined in 2140. The recent bitcoin halving took place on May 11th 2020 from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

Silk Road and Mt. Gox

• Silk Road - the infamous digital black market which involved money laundering, illicit activities and illegal drug transactions through bitcoin led to seizing of 26,000 BTC by the FBI, also leading to a drop in bitcoin price from $139 to $109.
• Mt. Gox - an exchange based in Tokyo faced security breach in February 2014 leading to the trading suspension on the exchange. Mt. Gox operated from 2010 to 2014 which was responsible for over 70% of bitcoin transactions while it faced bankruptcy in 2014. The CEO of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles had resigned from his position on Bitcoin Foundation board by the end of the February. The company filed bankruptcy protection in March that consisted of over $60 million wherein almost 850,000 BTC were lost at that time as stated by its legal team.

Bitcoin Adoption

• One of the major milestones of bitcoin was when Microsoft started accepting BTC payment in December 11th 2014.
• On October 31st 2015, bitcoin was published on the front page of the magazine The Economist, titled - “The trust machine: How the technology behind bitcoin could change the world.”

Also Read, Cryptocurrency — Its Decade, Its Journey!

The Run on Bitcoin

• The year between 2015 and 2016 was a relative year with no major mark events of ups and downs. 
• The year 2017 was a remarkable year as it was the start of bitcoin’s first biggest bull run and its exposure to being in the mainstream, it once again hit the mark of $1,000 on January 2017.
• On June 2017, BTC crossed it’s first $3,000 mark.
• The case of stealing intellectual property between Winklevoss twins suing Mark Zuckerberg was in the headlines during which the brothers had filed an application to launch Bitcoin ETF and was later rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. However, during the period, the price of BTC had marked its all-time-high.
• SegWit soft fork was activated in August 2017.
• On September 2017, Bitcoin crossed its first mark of $5,000.
• However, volatility was always the part of Bitcoin and was affected when China banned crypto exchanges and ICOs and the infamous comments by JPMorgan Chase CEO - Jamie Dimon.
• On November, Bitcoin crossed its mark of $10,000 and just within hours it crossed $11,000 and a few months later it reached $20,000 leading to falling to $13,000 by the end of 2017
• The year 2018 was the year of ups and downs - the beginning of the year saw a drop of $10,000 and hit its highest level of stability on October 17 2018.
• The year 2019, started with $4,00 mark from April working on a steady growth that led to a jump by the end of the May with $8,600 and by June - the miracle worked with the mark of $13,000.
• The year of mixed emotions 2020 - has been a ride for each one of us and so it has been for bitcoin with the price fluctuation from approx $7,000 to $13,293 at present.