Bitcoin came to the public eye for the first time in 2010, an event that marked the shift in the financial world. Invented by the still-reclusive Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin went on to create waves that would change how people view decentralized and virtual assets.
Although 2010 is seen as Bitcoin’s birth date, the idea for the cryptocurrency was first sown in the 2008 whitepaper. As we celebrate the 12th anniversary of the whitepaper on October 31 it becomes imperative to take a look back and see how far we have come from the nascent stages of yesteryear.
On October 31, 2008, the world learned about a tamper-proof, decentralized peer-to-peer protocol that could track and verify digital transactions with added functionalities. One of Bitcoin’s main attractions was that it could put a stop to double spending and evoke transparency in every individual transaction. The concept of Bitcoin also drew in the developer crowd after learning about the mining feature and how miners are rewarded for obtaining Bitcoins off the blockchain.
Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned Bitcoin as a real-world tool that would make transactions and purchases much easier and quicker. Although Bitcoin has not fully permeated every level of banking, the past decade has seen several companies integrate Bitcoin or its compatriots into its fold. At press time, Bitcoin was trading for $13,165 with a total market cap of $243.96 billion. A healthy 7-day growth had elevated Bitcoin’s daily trading volume to $32.58 billion, a figure that users expect to climb in the coming days.
Over the last several years, Bitcoin has set many milestones for itself, including key changes to native cryptocurrency peripherals. Bitcoin’s price movements have been one of the most striking figures since its inception as analysts continue to predict higher growth. The current cryptocurrency price point of $13,165 is 438,833,333 % higher than its first recorded value of $0,003. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s circulating supplies was 18.52 million. This means that only 2.47 million BTC tokens are left to be mined on the blockchain.
As we celebrate the 12th year of the whitepaper, Bitcoin has been seeing changes in terms of other peripherals as well. On October 29, Bitcoin’s hash rate fell by 40 percent while the transaction fees rose to a 28-month high. Some members of the Bitcoin community claimed that the drop in hash rate was because of the end of China’s rainy season. China is one of the largest miners of the cryptocurrency and mining remains affordable only when hydroelectricity is available in the plenty.
Despite Bitcoin’s naysayers, it is an undeniable fact that the world’s largest cryptocurrency has become a constant in the financial world. Bitcoin’s price movements may continue to be erratic but it is a surety that the still unknown Satoshi would be proud of the idea that he had all those years ago.