In November, bitcoin celebrates its first 15 years of existence. This cryptocurrency came to occupy a place in history, its ups and downs, both in price and in expectations and valuation in the markets, are epic and constant.
However, one thing cannot be denied: bitcoin came to occupy a place in history as it represents a watershed. Its consolidation as a globally accepted currency in financial systems today seems distant, but its role in modifying the rules of the game in monetary systems is undeniable.
Today, when the scandal of FTX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been found guilty of fraud and conspiracy by a jury in a New York court, shakes the crypto world, It is worth remembering bitcoin and what it has meant to the world in these 15 years.
Bitcoin was born in November 2008, when a person (or group of people) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, sent a message to an email about cryptography, describing a project to create a digital currency that would be used to record and transfer value.
It is said that Nakamoto himself, an alleged person who remains unidentified to this day, pointed out that the emergence of bitcoin had the following main purpose:
“Bitcoin was born with high ambitions, it aims to provide citizens with a means of payment that enables the execution of fast, low-cost transfers of value, and that, furthermore, cannot be controlled or manipulated by governments, central banks or financial entities. ”
It was in January 2009; That is, just over a month after the birth of bitcoin, when the first network based on the bitcoin protocol came into operation, which marked the origin of cryptocurrencies.
In 2011, some organizations began to accept donations in bitcoins and merchants operating on the Internet began to accept these currencies as a means of payment.
It is from then on that unstoppable growth is recorded. Bitcoin was the seed of the world of cryptocurrencies, which today number in the hundreds, this has generated a long period of mistrust in the market.
However, it is a reality that the birth of the Bitcoin protocol in 2008 represented a technological and organizational watershed that forever changed the history of money. The Bitcoin brand belongs to the world.
The milestones of bitcoin
- 1999. In an interview, economist Milton Friedman predicts the arrival of a new anonymous digital cash technology.
- November 1, 2008. Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” in a cryptography forum.
- January 3, 2009. The bitcoin blockchain goes live. The first bitcoin is mined.
- January 12, 2009. The first bitcoin transfer takes place between Satoshi Nakamoto and cryptographer Hal Finney, who ultimately was the first Bitcoin client.
- May 22, 2010. Laszlo Hanyecz makes the first documented purchase of a good with Bitcoin. He pays for two pizzas with 10,000 bitcoin, which at the time were worth about $41 together.
- November 2010. Bitcoin reaches a market capitalization of 1 million dollars. Each bitcoin is worth 0.50 cents.
- February 9, 2011. 1 bitcoin = 1 dollar.
- June 8, 2011. The first big jump in price. One bitcoin is worth 32 dollars. The total value of the network exceeds 200 million dollars.
- October 2012. Coinbase launches the first bitcoin purchase service via bank transfer in the United States.
- March 28, 2013. Bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeds $1 billion.
- November 29, 2013. The value of bitcoin reaches $1,250.
- December 2013. China’s central bank prohibits financial institutions from carrying out operations in bitcoin.
- December 2014. Microsoft begins accepting payments in bitcoin for the purchase of games, applications and software.
- June 2015. New York State launches the BitLicense, the first regulation specifically aimed at digital currency businesses.
- January 2017. The value of bitcoin once again exceeds $1,000 after three years.
- April 2017. Japan legalizes bitcoin as a means of payment.
- May 20, 2017. The price of bitcoin exceeds $2,000 for the first time.
- August 1, 2017. Bitcoin is divided between Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
- August 12, 2017. The price of bitcoin exceeds $4,000 for the first time.
- September 1, 2017. The price of bitcoin exceeds $5,000 for the first time.
- October 17, 2017. The total market value of bitcoin exceeds $90 billion.
- January 3, 2019. It has been 10 years since the launch of the bitcoin network.
- September 2021: El Salvador becomes the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender.
- October 21, 2021. Bitcoin reaches what is until today its historical price of $66,000. At the time of writing this article it was trading at $34,750, which represented a drop of 47.35 percent from its historical level.
When JP Morgan predicted bitcoin at $120,000
The price of bitcoin is extremely volatile, that is the great criticism of formal financial systems for cryptocurrency.
As we know, at some point it was listed at just over $66,000 and today it is more or less half that value.
But there is no shortage of those who say that the most popular cryptocurrency in the world will recover.
At one point, the world’s largest bank by assets, JP Morgan, predicted that the cryptocurrency had the potential to reach at least $120,000given that at that time the cryptocurrency was around its current historical maximum levels, that prediction meant a 100 percent increase.
Instead, bitcoin fell, but the predictions that it will rise again have not stopped yet.
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