Happy Birthday Bitcoin! Wish a hearty Happy Birthday Bitcoin as the genesis block was mined on this day, 11 years ago by Satoshi Nakamoto. Through Block#0, Bitcoin was officially born.
On January 3rd, 2009, the first Bitcoin block was mined. The block contained one transaction, and 50 BTC was rewarded to Satoshi for mining it. You can see the transaction here.
Today, 11 years later, there are now more than 18 million Bitcoin in existence and the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed from near zero to more than $7,300 today. The first block also had a message written into the code. It says simply:
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”
The statement reflects the vision and commentary during the time – the failure of existing banks and the need for a new peer-to-peer monetary system.
One of the world’s most expensive pizza’s was sold in May of 2010 when Papa John’s sold 2 pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins. In today’s money, those two large pizzas would’ve been worth $73 million dollars!
Of course, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies weren’t always in the news for some harmless purchase – infamously, it was and still is the currency of choice to be used for purchasing illegal products and services on the dark web. Infamously, the Silk Road was created in 2011.
Bitcoin first caught the attention of mainstream media back in 2013 when one BTC soared from $100 to a massive $1,000 in just one month. 2013 was the first major bull market for Bitcoin – but it would not breach the price of $1,000 again for another four years until Jan 3rd, 2017.
During the four years, Mt. Gox collapsed – famously a Magic the Gathering Online Exchange, it quickly adapted to become a major Bitcoin exchange. The house of cards collapsed in February of 2014 when Mark Karpeles reported that more than 850,000 Bitcoins had been stolen. Karpeles was arrested by Japanese authorities in 2015. This cataclysmic event tanked Bitcoin to a hit a 16-month low in January of 2015.
All of this lead to a stunning bull run in 2017 – it coincided with the ICO craze, and saw Bitcoin soar from just under $1,000 to almost $20,000 at the end of the year. It was also during this time that we saw the first fork of Bitcoin, creating Bitcoin Cash, and the CBoE and CME entering the market with Bitcoin futures products.
But just like the first bull run in 2013, we saw the beginning of the dubbed Crypto Winter that started in 2018. Bitcoin would see more than 70% of its value wiped. While many ICOs failed, we also saw the hardening of resolve of cryptocurrencies and crypto companies. Industry giants such as ICE Markets’ Bakkt, Fidelity Investments, and TD Ameritrade are getting into the market.
All of this has resulted in Bitcoin being called a scam, a miracle, a lifeline for a broken financial industry. We’ve seen investors swindled, and we’ve seen overnight millionaires. What do you think? Let us know what you think, and wish Bitcoin a happy birthday on our Facebook page!
