The evolution of Bitcoin (Part 1)

What would you do if you could do it all over again?

October 5, 2009 - New Liberty Standard Publishes First Exchange Rate:  New Liberty Standard opens a service to buy and sell bitcoin, with an initial exchange rate of 1,309.03 BTC to one U.S. Dollar, or about eight hundredths of a cent per bitcoin.

October 12, 2009 - The First Bitcoin-to-Fiat Exchange Occurs:  Using PayPal, NewLibertyStandard buys 5,050 BTC from Sirius for $5.02, equating to roughly one tenth of a cent per bitcoin.  

May 22, 2010 - Two Pizzas Are First Material Item Purchased Using Bitcoin - The "best" deal ever in 21st Century:  BitcoinTalk user laszlo (Laszlo Hanyecz) pays 10,000 BTC for two pizzas delivered to their house (valued at about $25), ordered and paid for by another user, jercos. This assigns the first concrete valuation to bitcoin - about $0.0025 per coin. 

July 11, 2010 - Bitcoin Posted on Slashdot:  The release of Bitcoin version 0.3 is featured on slashdot.org, a popular news and technology website. Reaching a large audience of technophiles, the article brings many newly-interested people on board, driving the exchange value of a single bitcoin up nearly tenfold, from approximately $0.008 to $0.08 in just five days. 

July 18, 2010 - Mt. Gox Opens For Business - Still remember Mt.Gox? Still feel the pain?:  Jed McCaleb, a programmer best known for creating the successful eDonkey peer-to-peer network in 2000, announces the launch of Mt. Gox, a new full-time bitcoin exchange.  Bitcoin value: $0.07 !

February 9, 2011 - Bitcoin Price Hits $1.00:  Just two years old, Bitcoin achieves parity with the U.S. Dollar on the Mt. Gox exchange.

June 1, 2011 -  Gawker Publishes Article About The Silk Road:  Titled “The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable,” Adrian Chen's piece on Gawker is as provocative as it is popular. To many people reading it, the sudden realization that Bitcoin has a useful value – one that's entirely unique - hits home. With a link to Mt. Gox in the text, the article starts an enormous upswing in price that beats all previous records, reaching over $31 per bitcoin just one week after publication. 

June 19, 2011 -  Mt. Gox Hacked - any fan of Btc-e here?:  By gaining access to the credentials of an official auditor working for the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, a hacker downloads a slightly out-of-date copy of the website's user database, including email addresses and insecurely hashed passwords. Soon after, a copy of the database is leaked and is used to launch attacks against accounts held by users of the MyBitcoin online wallet service who share the same password on both sites, resulting in thefts of over 4,019 BTC from roughly 600 wallets. Bitcoin value: $17.77 !

December 19, 2011 - "The Good Wife" Airs "Bitcoin for Dummies" TV Episode:  About 9.45 million viewers tune in to watch "Bitcoin for Dummies" on January 15, 2012; the story involves a government manhunt for the creator of Bitcoin, who is charged with creating a currency in competition with the U.S. Dollar. Despite the massive exposure, prices remain stagnant following the show's airing.  Bitcoin value: $3.41 !

March 1, 2012 - Linode Hacked, Over 46,000 BTC Stolen:  An unknown hacker breaches Linode's server network and immediately seeks out accounts related to bitcoin, quickly compromising the wallets of eight customers. Bitcoinica, a large online bitcoin exchange, is hardest hit, losing more than 43,000 BTC.  Bitcoin value: $4.92 !

November 15, 2012 - Wordpress Accepts Bitcoin:  In a smart and savvy release, Wordpress explains the decision: “PayPal alone blocks access from over 60 countries, and many credit card companies have similar restrictions... we don’t think an individual blogger from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the blogosphere because of payment issues they can’t control. Our goal is to enable people, not block them.” As one of the 25 most popular domains on the web, Wordpress's move paves the way for later retail ventures in Bitcoin.  Bitcoin value: $11.04 !

March 11, 2013 - Bitcoin 0.8 Causes Brief Hard Fork:  Shaking confidence in Bitcoin and the validity of some transactions, the price briefly plummets and the Mt. Gox exchange temporarily suspends bitcoin deposits. Thanks to a swift and coordinated response by Bitcoin developers, miners, and community members, the fork is resolved within hours after the operators of two large mining pools, Michael Marsee (of BTC Guild) and Marek Palatinus (of slush's pool), honorably forgo some of their accumulated mining rewards in order to downgrade to the previous, compatible version. An updated version, 0.8.1, is released shortly after, containing safeguards to prevent the original problem. Bitcoin's price increased from $47.41 to $131.07 1 month later.

April 10, 2013 - Increased Trading Volume Breaks Mt. Gox:  Originally thought to be a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack on the largest bitcoin exchange, the great influx of traders on the heels of Cyprus's bailout announcement overwhelms Mt. Gox's servers, causing trades to stutter and fail. Price of Bitcoin drop from 181$ to 122$ 10 day later

To be continue...