Today is Bitcoin's birthday, I decided to write in the spirit of celebrating with such iconic and inspirational coin.
Bitcoin is either dead or not dead. Theoretically cryptocurrency supporters and non supporters can agree there is no transit point from one to another, it is just as simple as a two sided coin.However, there is nothing simple about Bitcoin timeline since its creation in 2009 till date. It has been both an exciting and panic filled roller coaster ride into a jigsaw of volatility over the years.
Earlier this year, February, 50 luxury apartments in Dubai were sold for Bitcoins by the two UK based entrepreneurs as reported by Business Insider. It was the sort of headlines that guarantees a pat on the back for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. As this signifies how far the worth of Bitcoin has evolved since the first time cryptocurrency was used as a means of payment back in 2010, when Lazlo Hanyecz a resident of Florida purchased two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins.
Bitcoin inherent function as a decentralized and cryptographically secured monetary assets designed for a cashless society slowly explode into public consciousness. And with its ability to disintermediated the exchange of values, it became a novelty among tech enthusiasts and disruptive entrepreneurs, with many dropping their regular jobs to leverage newer dimension of earnings.
However volatility in price rate has dogged the young industry leading to persistent claims of an imminent death. Report about Bitcoin’s justified death were first published in 2010 when the cryptocurrency was only valued at $0.23. The news heralded a long stream of Bitcoin obituaries, most of which were tracked by 99bitcoin a site that keeps records of hundreds of Bitcoin demise. It was typical for such headlines to pop up intermittently between falling price and moon price.
One such moon price happened last year December when Bitcoin climb it highest recorded peak of $20,000. It has since shed 70% of it worth. Subsequently cryptocurrency market aggregators are likely looking up another chute for regular job opportunities after their short lived stints. After all, the much awaited Goldman Sachs Bitcoin trading has taken a back shelves and a bottleneck clampdown from Securities and Exchange Commission has cause reasonable slump in price, having rejected every bitcoin ETF.
With plummeting price, Bitcoin skeptics like controversial Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort feel the need to point their “I told you so finger” for future reference. Belfort noted Bitcoin is certainly useless and there are too many fundamental flaws with it. He however failed to point or mention one but instead acknowledged that blockchain technology held immense promise. This was a stark contrast to the 24-page article written by Economist on how irrelevant the blockchain technology is and how much less Bitcoin was worth.
Back in 2014 Ethereum changed the front line in cryptocurrency and blockchain. It gained popularity with its coding language to write smart contract and expert were quick to predict Ethereum will supersede Bitcoin value in the nearest future. At present it seats on at about $20 billion worth of cryptocurrency market cap valued at about $200 billion. This is following fluctuations in it prices and a substantial lost in market value.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, explained in an interview with Bloomberg during Ethereum blockchain conference in Hong Kong on September 8, that the period of explosive growth in cryptocurrency is certainly over.
“If you talk to the average educated person at this point, they probably have heard of blockchain at least once. There isn’t an opportunity for yet another 1,000-times growth in anything in the space anymore.”
Buterin maintains the shift in the superficial awareness will no longer be;
“just people being interested” but the actual use case of the cryptocurrency. “real applications of real economic activity.”
Whether it is an upcoming Bitcoin obituary gracing a news headline or co-founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian reaffirming his beliefs that Bitcoin and Ethereum will be trading at $20,000 and $1,500 by the end of 2018.
The king is dead, long live the king! The phenomenon lives on.