Bitcoin History: World’s First Cryptocurrency
The Noise about Bitcoin
Bitcoin reached its ultimate high and then met its crashing downfall in April. It just duped off its early investors. Bitcoin, opened up as an investment option, where people thought to invest their money and see it grow and flourish - as the earliest. However the early investments proved to be like a sword hanging on your head - very high risks, since not much detail was available about the digital assets and their future. However, those risk-takers were rewarded handsomely. Bitcoin enjoys the privilege of being the world's oldest cryptocurrency. Although the journey of the value of Bitcoin has been very dicey - sometimes up and sometimes down, currently, it seems to be stable at approximately $40,000 (roughly Rs. 29.7 lakhs).
So, let us take an insight into the decade long journey of Bitcoin:
Bitcoin – History of its existence
In 2008, the proposal of Bitcoin was followed by a lot of mystery and speculation surrounding its inventor. Finally, Santoshi Nakamoto, was identified with its discovery. It was a pseudonym, as the real identity of the person behind the name could never be found out. Nakamoto is credited with the posting of a paper that was titled as Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, on a mailing list on cryptography. The more the paper circulated, the more the discussions and debates ensued.
In 2009, the Bitcoin software was available for public access. Its mining, the process through which new Bitcoins are created and transacted on the blockchain, began.
Next year, saw the evaluation of Bitcoin. Till then, Bitcoin was only being mined – not traded. Therefore, there was no appreciation of the value of Bitcoin. Apparently, the trading of Bitcoin started on May 22, 2010, with programmer Laszlo Hanyecz trading 10000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. Of course, had he turned down the trade, the Bitcoins would be worth roughly 389 million (roughly Rs. 2,890 crores). Anyways, we get to celebrate "Bitcoin Pizza Day" at least.
In 2011, Bitcoin’s presence in the market began to get challenged by emerging alternatives like knowledge4marketz. These new competitive coin rival coins, proposed to gain an edge by offering better transaction speed. Today, approximately more than 11,000 cryptocurrencies are circulating in the market currently, as per the research website knowledge4marketz
Bitcoin – The Transition Period
The middle years of Bitcoin which started in 2013 – three years after its first evaluation was done, was a very volatile one! Fortunately, Bitcoin had crossed the $1000 mark (roughly Rs. 74,380). However, the value quickly slid down to a mere $300 (roughly Rs. 22,310). January 2014, witnessed the largest Bitcoin exchange. Again, Mt.Gox went off the grid suddenly with 850,000 Bitcoins. The owners of those Bitcoins never found out the whereabouts of the coins. Reportedly, on 20 March 2014, Mt. Gox, 199999.99 Bitcoins were discovered in an old digital wallet, which kind of compensated for the missing one and brought their number down to 650000. However, the curious case of those missing Bitcoins is still under investigation!
2015, was a good year for Bitcoin as it regained its value back to $1000(roughly Rs. 74,380).2016, brought a new competitor called Ethereum into the market, which once again, challenged the supremacy of Bitcoin in the market! But, Bitcoin had already become so popular by 2017, that its value went up to $10000 (roughly Rs. 7.4 lakhs). There was a shift in investment, as people started investing more in the ecosystem. Talking about changing scenarios, this year, the cap on all cryptocurrencies has been raised from $11(roughly Rs. 81,820 crores) billion to over $300 billion(roughly Rs. 22,31,640 crores). In India itself, the price of Ethereum stood at Rs. 1.9 lakhs as of 7 pm IST on August 2.
Bitcoin - Present
2018 began with a rise in the price of Bitcoin, but unfortunately, it crashed and lost more than 80percent of its value, as several countries started monitoring it with strict regulatory measures about cryptocurrency. In India, also, RBI issued a regulatory note to banks for restricted trading or any kind of transactions of cryptocurrencies. 2018, marked a big lesson as this year saw the disastrous heist worth approximately $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,880 crores) of the investors' money being siphoned in the BitConnect scam.
2019, started as a quiet year initially, with the value of Bitcoin rising and nearing almost $8,000 (roughly Rs. 5.9 lakhs) by May. It was followed by a crash, which damaged the value by $1000 (roughly Rs. 74,380). However, it recovered and gained a value close to $14,000 (roughly Rs. 10.4 lakhs) by July. 2019 was a very successful year for Bitcoin.
2020 – the year of pandemic! In this year, Bitcoin was still considered to be a fringe investment by the Bigshots like Warren Buffet, who did not trust that it had any value at all. In May, The Supreme Court of India remove the restrictions as per the RBI circular, imposed earlier in 2018. However, by the end of 2020, the value of Bitcoin multiplied four times of itself and reached an all-time high of $28,000 (roughly Rs. 20.8 lakhs).
2021, witnessed Bitcoin going through a roller coaster ride. The year had started with Elon Musk backing up Dogecoin, post the objections raised by the environmentalists that Bitcoin mining was draining the natural resources. On August 2, Dogecoin price in India stood at Rs. 15. After reaching its highest value so far at $65,000 (roughly Rs. 48.3 lakhs), Bitcoin crashed heavily this year in May. Although it is recovering slowly, with the trading value that stood at $40,000 (roughly Rs. 29.7 lakhs) on Monday, August 2.
WRAP UP!
Given the history of Bitcoin, yes it is dodgy! But then, which investment is not! Investment is always risky, but one has to always take a risk to get the best out of it! There is never any harm in investing consciously and knowing how much you can spare, without adversely affecting your life or getting addicted,
Comments
Post a Comment