A look back
This week was the ten year anniversary of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It’s hard to believe it was merely ten years ago that Bitcoin was first revealed to the world and in that time it has risen from being worth mere fractions of a cent to 6 300 US. It wasn’t until May 22, 2010, that what is lead to be believed was the first real-world cryptocurrency transaction, which took place when Laszlo Hanyecz, a Bitcoin enthusiast, bought two large Papa John’s pizzas for 10 000 Bitcoins, which would be worth around 63 million dollars today. May 22, 2010, after that, was known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.”
It wasn’t until five years later that Ethereum was released to the public in July 2015. Ethereum started initially stronger than Bitcoin’s start at a 0.93 US price, and it rose over the next couple of months until stabilizing at 7 dollars in December. In June of 2016 though, Ethereum faced it’s most trying time: the DAO attack. 50 million dollars of Ether was stolen by an unknown hacker, dropping the price of Ether by 50%. This attack forced Ethereum to create a hard fork and split into two: Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic. However, even after having gone through that hard time Ethereum has bounced back, and is currently trading at 200 US and is still one of the most popular cryptocurrencies.
People have often said that cryptocurrency is a fad, however after the ten-year mark, and looking back at the trials that Ethereum has gone through, and survived; this proves that cryptocurrency is here to stay.
Further proof lies no further than the news that Coinbase, a platform to sell cryptocurrency, now has a value of 8 billion dollars, which is worth more than all but the 3 top cryptocurrencies, being Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. Coinbase also announced this week a new bundle to appeal to the interests of institutional investors (https://ambcrypto.com/coinbase-coo-talks-about-coinbase-bundle-index-funds-and-adding-more-cryptocurrency-on-the-platform/).
In a mere ten years, we have gone from Bitcoin being worth fractions of a cent to being worth thousands of dollars, in 8 short years we went from “Bitcoin Pizza Day,” the first recognized real-world transaction of crypto, to now having institutional investors buying into crypto. Where do you think we’ll be in another ten years?
-Written by James Hepburn