From 1998 to 2009 The years preceding Bitcoin
Although Bitcoin was the first widely accepted cryptocurrency, there had been previous attempts to create online currencies with encrypted ledgers. B-Money and Bit Gold are two examples of these, both of which were conceived but never fully realized.
Mr. Nakamoto, the Mysterious in 2008
A paper titled Bitcoin – A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list discussion. It was posted by someone going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity is still unknown.
2009 Bitcoin is born.
The Bitcoin software is made available to the public for the first time, and mining – the process by which new Bitcoins are created and transactions are recorded and verified on the blockchain – begins.
Bitcoin is valued for the first time in 2010.
It was impossible to assign a monetary value to the emerging cryptocurrency's units because it had never been traded, only mined. Someone decided to sell theirs for the first time in 2010, exchanging 10,000 of them for two pizzas. If the buyer had kept those Bitcoins, they would be worth more than $600+ million at today's prices.
Rival cryptocurrencies emerge in 2011.
As Bitcoin's popularity grows and the concept of decentralized and encrypted currencies gains traction, the first alternative cryptocurrencies emerge. These are sometimes referred to as altcoins, and they generally attempt to improve on the original Bitcoin design by providing greater speed, anonymity, or some other benefit. Namecoin and Litecoin were among the first to emerge. There are currently over 1,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation, with new ones appearing on a regular basis.
Bitcoin's value plummets in 2013.
Shortly after the price of one Bitcoin reaches $1,000 for the first time, it begins to fall rapidly. Many investors will have lost money as the price fell to around $300 – it would be more than two years before it reached $1,000 again.
Scams and theft in 2014
Unsurprisingly, for a currency designed with anonymity and lack of control in mind, Bitcoin has proven to be an appealing and profitable target for criminals. Mt.Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, went offline in January 2014, and the owners of 850,000 Bitcoins never saw them again. Investigations are still ongoing to determine exactly what occurred, but whatever the story, someone dishonestly obtained a haul valued at $450 million dollars at the time. Those missing coins are worth $4.4 billion at today's prices.
Ethereum and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2016.
This year, one cryptocurrency came dangerously close to stealing Bitcoin's thunder, as interest in the Ethereum platform grew. This platform makes use of the cryptocurrency Ether to enable blockchain-based smart contracts and apps. The emergence of Initial Coin Offerings signaled the arrival of Ethereum (ICOs). These are crowdfunding platforms that allow investors to trade what are essentially stocks or shares in startup ventures in the same way that they can invest in and trade cryptocurrencies. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned investors that, due to a lack of oversight, ICOs could easily be scams or ponzi schemes masquerading as legitimate investments. The Chinese government went one further, by banning them outright.
Bitcoin reaches $10,000 in 2017 and continues to rise.
A gradual expansion of the places where Bitcoin could be spent contributed to its continued popularity, even as its value remained below previous peaks. As more applications arose, it became clear that more money was flowing into the Bitcoin and cryptocoin ecosystem. During this time, the total market cap of all cryptocoins increased from $11 billion to over $300 billion. Banks such as Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and BNP Paribas have stated that they are looking into ways to work with Bitcoin. Meanwhile, the blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin has sparked a revolution in the fintech industry (and beyond) that is still in its early stages.
And now, in 2021, Bitcoin continues to make history. It is only the beginning of a brighter future.