Looking for a ray of sunshine to brighten up this dark crypto winter? The fact that the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency just turned 14 at the beginning of January might cheer you up a bit. And if you don’t feel like celebrating, now’s as good a time as ever to get better acquainted with the king of crypto.
For most people, January is the absolute worst month of the year, but not for those who have a soft spot for all things crypto. The beginning of the year gives crypto enthusiasts a good reason to celebrate and extend their winter festivities a little while longer, as January 3rd marks a special day in the history of digital currencies – it’s the day the genesis block of Bitcoin was mined, an event that later led to the emergence of the cryptocurrency industry.
Almost a decade and a half after this turning point, Bitcoin is still the undisputable leader of the crypto land, although many have tried to take its place. Ethereum arose as a great contender, and many believed this will finally change the hierarchy. But despite the Ethereum price hitting one record high after another over the past years, it never managed to get close enough to throw Bitcoin off its throne.
So, here we are, celebrating Bitcoin’s 14th birthday and fourteen consecutive years of staying in the lead. Now, 14 might not sound like such an impressive age, especially if you compare it to millennia-old traditional money, but in crypto years that’s a lot. In fact, that’s as old as a crypto can be, considering that Bitcoin was the first of its kind. So, if you want to expand your crypto knowledge and gain a better understanding of the industry and how it has evolved over time, learning more about Bitcoin is a good place to start.
A difficult and mysterious beginning
Many of you probably know that Bitcoin is the first-ever digital currency to be invented. However, it’s not the first attempt at creating an alternative, digital form of money. Two other initiatives precede it – B-Money and Bit Gold – although none of these projects was completed. These early attempts at developing a decentralized digital currency laid the foundation for the birth of Bitcoin, which came a few decades later.
In 2008, a white paper called Bitcoin – A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was published by an anonymous developer (or group of developers) under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. To this day, no one knows who Satoshi Nakamoto really is or if he ever existed. The document described a blockchain network that would serve as a decentralized public ledger, allowing people to conduct quick and safe transactions directly with each other without the interference of an intermediary such as a bank or a monetary institution. Bitcoin’s purpose was quite bold, although no one could really suspect back then just how big it would get.
Then, on January 3rd 2009, the Bitcoin network was publicly launched, and Nakamoto mined the first BTC block, also known as the genesis block, which earned him a reward of 50 BTC that can never be spent as they were hardcoded into the software. At this time, Bitcoin still had no monetary value since it had never been traded, and people weren’t exactly lining up to purchase it. In other words, Bitcoin wasn’t off to a great start.
It was pretty much radio silence until 2010 when someone decided to purchase two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, marking the first real-world Bitcoin transaction. This event drew attention to the newly emerged cryptocurrency, and people started to take an interest in this innovative asset that promised to provide so many benefits. In 2011, Bitcoin crossed the psychological threshold of $1, and it was onwards and upwards from here. New crypto projects started emerging as a result, and the cryptocurrency industry grew bigger and stronger.
The Bitcoin boom(s)
Once people became familiarized with the concept of digital currencies, there was no turning back. Although 2012 was a relatively uneventful year, the coin was slowly but surely gaining ground. Bitcoin reached its first notable peak in 2013, when the price spiked to $1,237. By now, everybody wanted to get a piece of the pie, and the number of crypto users increased considerably. However, shortly after reaching the all-time high, Bitcoin’s price plummeted unexpectedly.
The ups and downs continued throughout the following years, and at the beginning of 2016, Bitcoin was riding an upward trend that eventually propelled its value to a new record of over $19,000. This is when major investors, developers, businesses and organizations decided to join the party, thus fueling the continuous expansion of the crypto sphere.
The onset of the covid pandemic set the stage for a bullish market, causing a rapid rise in prices for several cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin included. Therefore, the original crypto reached new all-time highs in 2021 before the market cooled off and entered a new period of decline in the first half of 2022. At the moment, the entire crypto sphere is suffering the effects of the latest crypto winter, but Bitcoin is still holding strong despite the bearish market and all the challenges it’s been through over the years.
Celebration day
Although Bitcoin celebrates its 14th anniversary in less than optimum conditions, the crypto community always makes sure to mark this memorable day. From big-name organizations and major exchange platforms like Binance to simple crypto enthusiasts, many take to Twitter to celebrate Bitcoin’s birth and pay tribute to the digital currency that has revolutionized the global financial system.
The whole internet is brimming with investors and traders conveying their birthday wishes to the first-ever crypto and expressing their appreciation to its creator. But the biggest crypto fans celebrated genesis day by upholding an already famous tradition and sending BTC to the genesis block.
It’s safe to say that in the short period of time since it’s been around, Bitcoin has left a deep mark on the financial scene and will continue to shape and influence our world in the years to come.
