In the midst of the great recession, on Halloween day in 2008, an email was sent to a list of cryptographers. The email contained a whitepaper titled 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,' followed by the opening sentence:
'I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.'
The sender was Satoshi Nakamoto. Fast-forward 15 years later, we still do not know who he, she, or they were, working on the idea behind Bitcoin.
The 9-page document, written in an academic style, introduces bitcoin as a digital currency and lays the foundations for the underlying blockchain technology. It turned out to be a blueprint for a new, cashless world in the digital age. The whitepaper's author, Satoshi Nakamoto, envisioned and explained the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, the mining process, and the method for recording transactions in the system.
The idea prototype evolves a few months later, on 3 January, when Satoshi himself mines the very first block on the Bitcoin blockchain, known as the “genesis block”. Then, on 8 January 2009, he sent another email to the same list announcing the release of version 0.1. In this email, he also includes information about the total circulation and the halving phases, stating:
“Total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins. It'll be distributed to network nodes when they make blocks, with the amount cut in half every 4 years. first 4 years: 10,500,000 coins next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins”
On the following day, the second block was mined, and starting from January 9, 2009, a new block was mined approximately every 10 minutes.
Some of the notable milestones in Bitcoin's history occurred in the following years. One such event took place in October 2009 when the first recorded transaction on an exchange occurred. Someone sent 5,050 Bitcoins to a new site called New Liberty Standard and received $5.02 in return.
The first real-world transaction paid for in Bitcoin occurred on May 22, 2010, when the enthusiastic supporter Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. He made the request on an online forum and offered 10,000 BTC as payment. The pizza restaurant chain, Papa John’s, accepted his offer and delivered two pizzas to his doorstep. This iconic moment is forever commemorated as Bitcoin Pizza Day, symbolizing a pivotal moment in the evolution of digital currencies.
Back in the days, 10,000 BTC were around $40. Today, they would be valued at ~$34k.
Witnessing the first-ever exchange and real-world transaction, Nakamoto sent his last and final email on April 26, 2011, stating that the project was now in good hands, and he was moving on to other endeavors.
Bitcoin owners, from the early days until now, haven't had an easy journey. The rapid changes, including substantial price increases in the early years and declines of 77% in 2014, 72% in 2018, and 65% last year, presented a formidable challenge.
Not only was price volatility a concern, but bad actors also exploited owners, leading to numerous thefts and frauds aimed at securing their cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the Bitcoin blockchain has faced criticism regarding sustainability, as verifying transactions consumes significant time, energy, and power.
On the other side, the tech community and Bitcoin supporters have been working on upgrades aimed at scaling the network and opening up new use cases for the mainstream. In 2018, the Lightning Network was launched to increase speed by moving computation off-chain. Additionally, the concept of Bitcoin NFT tokens, called Ordinals, was introduced in February 2023.
Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, followed by Ethereum and alternative coins like Solana. Currently, 1 BTC is valued at approximately $40,000, with a total supply of 19,61M BTC. According to estimates, the final block will be mined by the year 2140. In recent history, Bitcoin reached its all-time high on November 10, 2021, while the lowest point occurred on July 5, 2013.
Brands and companies are increasingly accepting cryptocurrency payments. Today, you can use Bitcoin to purchase products and services from major players in various industries, including Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, AT&T, Rakuten, Time Magazine, and others.