Bitcoin has had a tumultuous past. It has seen many ups and downs. Even though Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that was launched way back in 2008, there were many people who had predicted the rise of digital currencies way back in the 1980s.
Brief Timeline of Bitcoin
2008 August
The domain name Bitcoin.org was registered. In October that year, a paper with the title-‘Bitcoin-A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System’ was published. This paper had similar ambitions which were published in previous papers- no use of a third party, secure digital signatures and a proof-of-work. This paper was published by the ever elusive person (or group of persons) Satoshi Nakamoto.
2009 January
The first Bitcoins were mined just a few days into 2009. By January 9th the first version of the Bitcoin software was released and on the 12th the first Bitcoin transaction was done when 10 Bitcoins(BTC) were transferred to famous computer programmer Hal Finney.
2009 October
The New Liberty Standard published its first Bitcoin exchange rate, where US$ 1 was deemed to be equal to 1,309.03 BTC.
A better version of the Bitcoin software was released by December 2009.
2010
With an exchange rate established, Bitcoin could now be bought and sold on the Online Bitcoin Exchange. Some retail establishments started to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. One person even paid 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas worth $25. The value of those Bitcoins are now more than $100 million.
Fast Forward 2017
Till 2017, there was a gradual increase in the value of Bitcoin. It steadily grew to such a level that one Bitcoin eventually became worth a thousand Dollars. By the month of June, the value surged to $3000.
With the increase in the popularity of Bitcoin came in more miners and investors. This rising number of miners resulted in higher fees and more time needed to process transactions, with all stakeholders demanding an increase in the block sizes.
August 2017
This increasing demand meant that Bitcoin was forked to create Bitcoin cash(BCH) which eventually became the fourth largest cryptocurrency in the market.
For the remainder of 2017, Bitcoin gained value, eventually hitting a whopping $19,000 in December.
2018
For the entire year of 2018, Bitcoin’s value has steadily dropped. Many who were charmed by the high valuations that they got in 2017 started to sell their Bitcoins. Currently, its value has dropped 67% from its original highs.
The Future of Bitcoin
A lot of sceptics are predicting that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will not survive after a few years time. However, with the amount of popularity that Bitcoin is receiving, this is a wrong notion. There are still a lot of people who are still investing in Bitcoin, some even see Bitcoin as a viable alternative to the stock market. For all of these people Selling and Buy Bitcoin Online is the ‘next big thing’ in investment options.
