History and evolution of Bitcoin - ¿What does the future hold?
Currently, everyone is talking about Bitcoin, and how not to do it when we know that it has broken that historical high and still has exceeded 70k, even I have talked a lot about it with some of my friends interested in it.
But with the increase of its value and all this that is happening with cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, many new users are becoming interested in learning more, and even some do not know what is the $BTC, and for that reason today I want to share with you the fascinating history and evolution of Bitcoin, maybe for the more experienced this is not of much interest, but if you are a new user who is learning, this article will be great for you.
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Table of contents for this article:
♦️ Origin and creation.
♦️ Early days.
♦️ Volatility and speculation.
♦️ Adoption and use.
♦️ Mining and Blockchain.
♦️ Regulation and Challenges.
♦️ Future perspectives.
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Origin and Creation
Bitcoin was born in 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym still shrouded in mystery), published the Bitcoin White Paper. This white paper described a bold vision, something incredible that would change everything in the digital era, as it was a decentralized digital currency that would operate without the intervention of banks or governments.
If you are a common user, surely you have thought about having your savings in a bank, in my case, I am from Venezuela, a country where the local currency does not have a good value and inflation in the country is always growing, and many people here have bank accounts where they keep their savings, which in the end is losing its value, because the local currency is increasingly devalued, and the problem here is that the banks have total control of your money, and if they decide to freeze your account, you can not do anything because it depends on them to release it.
And this is something that does not happen with Bitcoin, because you and only you are the owner of your digital assets, and all this under the concept of blockchain, the underlying technology, a concept that was applied with the arrival of Bitcoin.
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Early Days
In its early years, Bitcoin had no market value. Its first recorded price was in 2010, two years after its creation, when it was exchanged for a few cents, even this is where the popular story of the user who bought Pizza with his Bitcoins was born, but I will explain that in a future article, as it is also something interesting to remember about this whole story.
Technically, during its first two years of existence, a Bitcoin was worth $0. However, the community grew and the first Bitcoin exchanges began to emerge, taking this idea of a digital and decentralized currency a bit more alive, more and more users began to see the potential it had, as many more are doing now.
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Volatility and Speculation
Bitcoin's history is marked by variations in its price. From less than $1 to reaching an all-time high of almost $20,000 in December 2017, not to mention the current new all-time high. Speculation has been a key factor in its volatility, as well as the adoption of many people and even, company who bet on this Bitcoin idea, giving it even more popularity.
Investors and traders have influenced its value since then and little by little it was gaining the affection of all those people who are looking for financial freedom, without having to depend on the small % gains offered by national banks, and start buying and watching BTC that undoubtedly gives us better benefits.
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Adoption and Use
Over the years, Bitcoin has evolved from being a technical curiosity to a form of investment and means of payment, and this last mentioned is something that many of us are interested in, because including Bitcoin as a payment method, makes it easier for many users to buy some things even when they are outside their home country and without having to use Fiat money.
To give you a clearer example, I can travel from Venezuela, take my route to Argentina, and there I can buy some things with my Bitcoin as long as the stores accept the BTC as a payment method, and so I do not need to carry fiat money with me, let alone take my national currency to Argentina to buy (which would not happen, because in Argentina or in any other country they accept the Bolivar as a payment method).
Big companies like Microsoft, Tesla and PayPal now accept Bitcoin as a payment method, and that's not counting many more that are left in the long list of services that we can pay with Bitcoin, including payment of video games and much more.
In addition, it has been integrated into the global economy, with Bitcoin ATMs and cryptocurrency-based remittance services, isn't this genius?
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Mining and Blockchain
But surely you are wondering how Bitcoin is obtained, the answer lies in Bitcoin Mining.
Bitcoin mining is a vital process to maintain the network, miners solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and create new Bitcoins, or rather, Satoshis are mined which are small fractions of 1 Bitcoin, which if you accumulate 100,000,000,000.00 Satoshis would be equivalent to 1 Bitcoin.
The subject of BTC mining is also very interesting, because investigating how it all works gives us a different view of how complex and interesting the whole subject is, but again, this will be the subject of a future article.
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Regulation and Challenges
The Bitcoin faces legal and regulatory challenges in different countries, even in my country Venezuela, and you can read about it here with a publication I made some months ago (800 Cryptocurrency Mining Equipment Seized in Venezuela) Some governments have embraced it, while others have imposed restrictions to the Bitcoin, because they do not want to accept the use of this Crypto by their citizens, and this happens because from my point of view and clear words, the fact that a citizen has 1 Bitcoin in his wallet, would not generate any interest to the government or any gain with the issue of taxes, and this is something that the rulers do not like at all.
Concerns about money laundering, cyber security and consumer protection are also at stake, because that is where they are based to say that the Bitcoin is not safe, and that with it they can finance illicit activities because of their privacy, to some extent they are right, but what the government is most concerned about is not being able to profit from all this.
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Future Perspectives
Where is Bitcoin headed, is a question that many are asking, even a few days ago I read an article by a guy who was analyzing the value of Bitcoin and he indicated that possibly by 2030 Bitcoin could be worth $1 million.
Institutional adoption is on the rise, and central banks are exploring digital currencies. However, uncertainties remain. Future prospects include scalability, environmental sustainability, and competition with other cryptocurrencies, so anything can happen in the coming years, but one thing that cannot be denied is that Bitcoin and the Blockchain is here to stay, and I for one am very happy to be part of this whole movement for about 3 years now.
We can not predict the future of what will happen with the BTC, but this is something that will not die, are long-term investments that we have to take into account in order to improve our financial future, as well as improve the value of this cryptocurrency, not for nothing is the main in the leaderboard hahahaha.
Greetings to all, and I thank you for having reached the end of my article, I hope you have a happy day, and remember to leave your opinion in the comments.
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English is not my native language, so I have used Hive Translator.
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