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THE HISTORY AND POPULARITY OF BITCOIN!

Hundreds of cryptocurrencies exist, but bitcoin is considered as the first modern cryptocurrency. Since its invention, it has been the most turbulent cryptocurrency. People are always confused about bitcoin’s value and are scared to invest and trade in it. It is crucial to gain knowledge about every detail of bitcoin before entering into the world of cryptocurrencies. 

The most important where the confusion occurs is the origin and history of bitcoin. People are still unaware of what bitcoin is and who invented it. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that is used as a medium of exchange to perform peer-to-peer transactions. It is a decentralized currency that doesn't require any financial institution or central government to complete the transactions. 

The introduction of Bitcoin by a Mysterious Entity

In late 2008, an individual or a group of people named Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity is still unknown, published a white paper on cryptocurrency that explains bitcoin's working. In 2009, it was the first time when Satoshi released a bitcoin, which was also referred to as "genesis block." People believed that a bitcoin was mined to point the collapse of financial infrastructure. 

Soon after the first-even bitcoin was mined, a transaction was done, and Nakamoto sent it to Hal Finney. Satoshi's identity is still a mystery, and no one has ever seen him. Many people claimed to be Satoshi and are often suspected by no one who could prove it. The details that came into existence were that he lived in Japan and was born on April 5, 1975. To this day, no one has his information and knows whether he is alive or dead.   

How Bitcoin got popular?

A person known as Laszlo Hanyecz made the first transaction of bitcoins in May 2010. Laszlo, a British enthusiast, purchased two pizzas in return of 10,000 bitcoins. This transaction took place on May 22, and from then; it is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day. If we count the value of 10,000 bitcoins from the time when bitcoin was at a peak, its worth was around $90,000,000.

In the early days of bitcoin, none of the businesses or enterprises accepted bitcoins because of some negative features. There’s one place where bitcoin transactions were made often because of its digital nature: the black market. Bitcoin was highly used in the criminal world to trade in illegal things.

An online dark-web place was found by Ross Ulbricht, known as Silk Road in 2011. The amalgamation of untraceable bitcoin payments and utilization of Tor routers made it the best to avoid recognition and arrests as per the rules of law enforcement. Ross Ulbricht ran a site named Dread Pirate Roberts, and his site allowed the trade of illegal drugs.

There was a huge sale of illegal drugs in October 2014 that involve heroin, MDMA, cannabis, methamphetamine, and LSD. The site allows buying other illegal items freely like fake licenses, weapons, child pornography, etc. Ulbricht was arrested after some time, but before he was arrested, his site gained more than one million active uses. The site accounted for transactions over 1.2 million that were over 9.5 million bitcoins.

 The Future of Bitcoin

The main negative factor about this cryptocurrency is its volatile market. This problem is required to be tackled for the growth of the bitcoin network. The currency is also vulnerable to hack attacks and theft, but more advanced features are being introduced day by day. Developers are working to improve the system and working of bitcoin, which will solve all its problems. Bitcoin advocates assure that bitcoin is going to become huge and is the wave of the future.  

More and more businesses have started accepting bitcoin as a medium of exchange and are growing with bitcoin's popularity. People are quite optimistic and believe that bitcoin is going to the wave of the future. Before entering into the world of cryptocurrencies, a novice must know all the facts, working, advantages, and disadvantages of bitcoin. The volatility of bitcoin makes it a problem but learning about the market and investing accordingly is imperative.

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