“Like the Internet, Bitcoin will change the way people interact and do business around the world.” -Erik Voorhees
As an opener in this topic of cryptocurrencies, it is only appropriate that we begin where it all started, with the name we all know, the first of the flock, the “gold of the future” as many call it: Bitcoin. We will discuss what Bitcoin is, where it came from and where it’s going. The creation of this legendary asset has already begun to bountifully produce fruits in the global economic landscape, and we are beginning to see the changes coming to the surface.
So what exactly is Bitcoin? Where did it come from? Bitcoin (BTC) is the World’s first Cryptocurrency, created by an entity (A person or multiple) which goes by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. They attained the website bitcoin.org in August 2008, and a couple months later published the white paper which laid out the operations of the Bitcoin network, introducing it as a peer-to-peer ECS, as mentioned in the title of the paper. They based their work on failed attempts of innovators past who tried to introduce systems for more secure and efficient electronic money transfers. Their work proved to be the one sought after, or at least the beginning. Months later, the first block of Bitcoins was mined by Satoshi, and soon after, the first transaction was initiated with BTC, setting it in motion the realm of real world exchange. Just like that the ball was rolling, sooner than later, tons of innovators were jumping on the train of blockchain exchange: new businesses pursuing blockchain, new cryptocurrency and exchange platforms, smart contracts, the whole thing seemed to take off all at once.
Bitcoins are mined in blocks and users can obtain these coins and transfer them through the blockchain set in place. BTC is run on a decentralized peer-to-peer blockchain system. This blockchain system, as we’ve described before, stores and sends information securely, privately, efficiently, inexpensively and transparently. This means that people are in control of their money, the system is immutable, making it secure, and there are only 21 Million BTC, meaning that the fixed supply will prevent the inflation we so often see in the centralized realm. Anyone can trade Bitcoin and however much of it they want, since it’s open sourced, and anyone can view a(n) (encrypted) transaction on the blockchain’s global ledger.
Bitcoin has come a long way from its beginnings; from fame to fortune, BTC keeps moving up! From its start as the first cryptocurrency, igniting the flame for the vast and ever growing crypto/DeFi market it’s come to be what some call “Digital Gold” or “the Gold of the Future” as it is seen as a store of value, rather than a viable asset in certain cases, especially with the rise of of cryptos which either have built on/ branched off Bitcoin’s foundation to fix or change problems, or have been created to have completely different purposes. However, it would be more appropriate to label it as what it is: an exchangeable currency. Bitcoin has had the most significant footprint on the DeFi/ Crypto world out of any other asset or entity besides perhaps Satoshi Nakamoto themselves, and its influence or presence are far from passing. Stay Tuned for more on Crypto and send us some feedback! Thanks!
