In 2008, Bitcoin began in a very humble way.
In 2017, it reached its highest price, taking its investors on a journey full of excitement and uncertainty. For just a little more than 10 years, Bitcoin’s price was like a roller coaster. It went up and down. It got back up and fell again.
According to Hemang Subramanian, an assistant professor in the Business Information Systems Department at Florida International University, Bitcoin adheres to both economic and market efficiency principles. He explained that bitcoins are assets that are international, have security, and are exchangeable.
A central entity does not control it. It is liquid and only available depending on the trading supply. Prices grow out of proportion in a short period of time. This is because of the demand for products whose supply is near-constant.
This is mainly the reason why investors attract to the crypto market’s trade. Certain people would say that the topsy-turvy journey of Bitcoin led other networks and businesses today to utilize cryptocurrency for their investing and financial undertakings.
Bitcoin’s Release
Chetan Chawla is an assistant professor of cryptocurrencies and blockchains at North Central College for Entrepreneurship in Naperville, Illinois. He stated that the notion of Bitcoin revealed to the public on October 31, 2008.
This occurred during the financial crisis by a person or a group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Through the crypto mailing list, Satoshi Nakamoto delivered a message with the title “Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper”. Within the message was a link directing to a white paper called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. These are both still accessible online.
According to Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, in the white papers, Nakamoto expounded the concept of Bitcoin. Satoshi described Bitcoin as a decentralized digital currency. This means that Bitcoin does not have a single primary administrator. Rather, it has a public ledger where transactions process and can be on any person’s computer or device. Through the Bitcoin Network’s peer-to-peer method, coins can exchange from one user to another without the need for third-party processing and validation.
Early Transactions of Bitcoin
For the early few months since the launch date of Bitcoin, it was only attainable by miners that were validating the Bitcoin blockchain, says Chawla. And in this primary period, Bitcoin didn’t really have a monetary value. Miners make trades again and again for fun. But they are also actually working on solving difficult puzzles and math problems. This is in order to find bitcoins and to verify prior bitcoin transactions if they are accurate and real.
After more than a year, the first official bitcoin transaction took place when a man from Florida offered a deal to anyone who could buy him two Papa John’s pizzas worth $25 in exchange for 10,000 bitcoins. As Mark Grabowski explains, such a transaction was significant. It provided the first realistic price or value for a single bitcoin, which was 4 bitcoins, equivalent to a penny.
Early transactions with Bitcoin were all negotiated via forums on the internet. Thus, people barter their goods or services in exchange for bitcoins as payment. And in 2011, other networks such as Ethereum and Litecoin began to operate, which miners and coders built.
These new networks adapted and improved the codes under Bitcoin’s blockchain for its various procedures. With the availability of Bitcoin for exchanges in the year 2010, transactions such as selling, buying, trading, and storing became easier and more efficient.
From a very low price of less than a few cents in 2010 to its highest price in 2017 when every bitcoin reached the U.S. of $20,000, Bitcoin has come a very long way. It still continues to be the most influential in the crypto market.
