Bitcoin 10 Year Challenge
The day was January 9th, 2009. The world was in economic turmoil.
And on that day a person or a group under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block of Bitcoin.
An encrypted message was stored in the genesis block:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
That day hope for a different economic future was born. A future where people have full control over their money.
The beginning was slow. Satoshi Nakamoto was the main miner and supporter of the network. It’s estimated that he mined around a million Bitcoins.
2010
Bitcoin grows and starts building a following.
Mid 2010 Satoshi Nakamoto disappears. The lead developer of Bitcoin becomes Gavin Andresen.
2011
Bitcoin becomes valuable. The price fluctuates from $0.30 to $30 within a year.
The first altcoin — Litecoin is born.
Wikileaks starts accepting Bitcoins.
A major black market called Silkroad emerges operating solely on Bitcoin payments.
2012
Bitcoin foundation was started by Gavin Andresen.
BitPay reported having over 1,000 merchants accepting bitcoin under its payment processing service
WordPress starts accepting bitcoins
2013
FBI seized roughly 26,000 BTC from the Silk Road black market
Bitcoin price that year reached over $1000
China declared it’s first ban on Bitcoin.
2014
Mt.Gox the largest Bitcoin exchange, handling around 70% of Bitcoin trading filled for bankruptcy as 850 000 bitcoins were missing from the exchange.
The price of Bitcoin started falling and dropped to $300 by the end of the year.
2015
Coinbase raised 75 million USD
the number of merchants accepting bitcoin exceeded 100,000
Ethereum a next-generation crypto project was launched.
The Bitcoin price fluctuated from $200 to $400
2016
The Cabinet of Japan recognized virtual currencies like bitcoin as having a function similar to real money.
Steam started accepting bitcoin
Uber switched to bitcoin in Argentina after the government blocked credit card companies from dealing with Uber.
researchers published a paper showing that by November 2013 bitcoin commerce was no longer driven by black market activities but instead by legitimate enterprises relieved some of the stigma of Bitcoin being the currency of criminals.
Bitfinex was hacked and nearly 120,000 BTC (around $60m) was stolen.
the number of bitcoin ATMs worldwide reached nearly 800
Venezuelans start using Bitcoin more and more due to hyperinflation in the country.
2017
Bitcoin Futures were launched.
The value of Bitcoin reaches $20 000.
Transaction costs go as high as $30.
A hardfork of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash launches. At its peak having 1/4th of Bitcoins value. This spurs out a whole wave of Bitcoin forks.
An Initial Coin Offering market emerges on Ethereum. $5.6 billion gets raised by ICO’s.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies go mainstream.
2018
The Bitcoin bubble bursts, the price comes crashing to nearly $3000 by the end of the year.
The ICO market dies.
More than a US$1bn was stolen from cryptocurrency exchanges through the year
The SEC declined 9 Bitcoin ETFs.
2019
Bakkt Raises $182 Million to launch its futures market
“Cash App”, the mobile payment application launched by Square, becomes the 12th most downloaded app in iTunes, Cash App allows to buy and sell Bitcoin directly in the app.
The price of Bitcoin holds at over $3000
How will the next 10 years of Bitcoin look like?
