A Detailed History Of Bitcoin
Considered to be the world’s fist decentralized currency, Bitcoin has been gaining acceptance and popularity from all corners of the world. Read on below to learn more about the history of Bitcoin, and to get a clearer picture of where it is headed.
2007
The concept of Bitcoin is thought to have been started at this point in time by Satoshi Nakamoto. Other than the fact that he lives in Japan, nothing much is known about him. It is said that this might be a pseudo name for a group of people and not one person’s identity.
2008
August: Application for encryption patent application filed. Charles Bry, Vladamir Oksman and Neals Kin, all of who deny any association with the alleged originator of the concept, made the application.
The Bitcoin.org domain was bought and registered by the group anonymously on the same month.
October: Satoshi Nakamoto’s ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” paper is published on a cryptography mailing list. The paper documented how the Bitcoin system would work, and offered a solution for the problem of money being copied.
November: Bitcoin project is registered on SourceForge. This is a community collaboration website focusing on the development of open source software.
2009
January: The Genesis block was launched. This charted the way for the release of the first version of Bitcoin.
The first transaction, between Hal Finney (cryptographic activist and developer) and Satoshi, occurred.
October: A Bitcoin valuation equation, which factors in the cost of electricity needed to power the computer generating Bitcoins, was published by New Liberty Standard.
2010
February: First Bitcoin currency exchange was established by dwdollar, which is no longer in operation. The previously filed application for encryption patent application was published and approved.
May: First real world transaction is made. It involved the payment of 10,000 bitcoins for a pizza by Florida programmer, Laszlo Hanyecz.
August: Bitcoin system was hacked, leading to the irregular generation and verification of 184 million bitcoins. This caused the value to plummet.
October: Bitcoin was scrutinized for use in criminal operations. The Financial Action Task Force issued a report on the use of digital currencies in the financing of criminal operations, among them terror operations.
November: Based on the existing number of bitcoins back then, they reached $1,000,000 value surges to $0.50 per bitcoin.
A public version of OpenCL miner is introduced, leading to a surge in Bitcoin value.
2011
January: Bitocoin marketplace, Silk Road, which dealt in the sale of illegal drugs, opened its doors.
February: Bitcoin attains parity with US dollar. Its value surges to $31 by August the same year.
March: Major updates on Bitcoin Market allowing 24 hour trading and reducing trade sizes are introduced, payment on executed trades is also ensured.
June: In a 4 day period value plummets from $31 to $10 per Bitcoin. A forum member claimed to have had 25,000 Bitcoins stolen from them. Furthermore, there was a serious security breach at MtGox leading to a 7 day shutdown.
2012
February: The world’s second largest exchange, TradeHill shuts down citing regulatory issues and a loss of $100,000.
March: 46,000 Bitcoins were lost during a shutdown on Linode, a webhosting company.
September: Bitfloor, 4th largest exchange in US loses 24,000 bitcoins to hackers. All exchange operations were stopped as a result.
December: The Bitcoin Central, operating under the European regulatory framework, was formed and licensed, as a European bank, and became the first Bitcoin bank.
2013
March: BitInstant, a Bitcoin brokerage firm, lost close to $12,000 as a result of a hacking attempt. Market capitalization for Bitcoin goes beyond $1 billion. US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network introduces the first ever regulations for Bitcoin. This was meant to guide persons using, exchanging or administering the digital currency.
August: A Texas judge rules that Bitcoin is a currency that could be used in purchase transactions. Bitcoin data was first tested on Bloomberg’s terminal. This allowed employees to use XBT Currency to track BTC.
The German Federal Ministry of Finance ruled that Bitcoin is a legal form of private currency in the country. The digital currency was to be considered exempt from taxation if held for longer than a year.
August: Bitcoin valuation rises to $700. Bitcoin was first accepted as payment at a Subway restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Soon afterwards the University of Nicosia Cyprus became the first academic institution to accept the digital currency as payment for tuition. Virgin Atlantic also started accepting Bitcoin as a mode of payment for space travel.
December: The People’s Bank of China ruled that Bitcoin is not a currency with real meaning. The value of the digital currency fell by about 20 percent as the government authority moved to stop banks from handling transactions involving digital currencies.
The largest theft, to date, involving 96,000 Bitcoin from Sheep Marketplace, an online drug site, also occurred in this month.
2014
January: The first insured Bitcoin storage service, for institutional clients, was launched by Bitcoin custodians, Elliptic. A Fortune 100 insurance company insured all deposits, in full reserve, comprehensively. This means that the custodian does not reinvest the assets.
Overstock.com accepted payments in the form of Bitcoins in the US, making it the first major online retailer to do so; others would soon follow suit.
February: Bitcoin classified as private money or assets by HMRC. The exchange or mining of Bitcoin would not attract any VAT as a result. As far as the treatment and taxation of Bitcoin is concerned, this move propelled the UK to the front of the line, as the most forward thinking and progressive.
June: US government auctioned off 29,000 Bitcoins seized from Silk Road marketplace. Since it was demonstrated that Bitcoin did not give criminals a means to evade the law through the closure of Silk Road, this gave the currency some level of legitimacy.
July: Release of the proposed rules on regulating virtual currencies by New York State Department of Financial Services brought the “Bit License” closer to becoming a reality.
The EU Banking Authority’s opinion on virtual currencies was published. In it, EU legistlators were urged to declare virtual currency exchanges as “obliged entities”.
The first regulated Bitcoin investment fund was launched by Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund. This cleared the way for regulated investors to invest in the digital currency.
August: George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, purchases £20 worth of Bitcoins to demonstrate his, and HM’s positive view of the digital currency.
October: After TeraExchange’s declaration that a derivative transaction involving Bitcoin was carried out on a regulated exchange, a new hedging instrument introduced on Bitcoin.
December: Microsoft, a world renowned tech giant, accepts Bitcoin.
2015
January: NYSE emerges as a minority investor in Coinbase’s $75 million.
MtGox CEO, Mark Karpeles was arrested and charged with fraud and embezzlement. Customer deposits amounting to 744,400 Bitcoins were allegedly lost by the exchange.
October: Bitcoins, and other virtual currencies, will not be subjected to VAT in the EU as per a ruling by the European court of justice.
2016
May: In a blog post, Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. The claims were debunked at different levels by the Bitcoin community.
August: Customer deposits amounting to 119,756 Bitcoins, valued at $77 million, were stolen from Bitfinex, the largest Bitcoin exchange. As a result, the value of Bitcoin plummeted by about 20 percent.
2017
March: For the second time in one month, the US securities exchange commission denies an application to bring digital currency to market as a means of tracking Bitcoin.
The future of Bitcoin and other digital currencies continues to be bright as their popularity continues to grow. Topcoincryptocurrency.com keep an eye of bitcoin going into 2019
