Cryptocurrencies have become a thing of interest to almost everybody. Some are interested in it because of its awesomeness, others are interested to see how it will really end up. Bitcoin faced a lot of resistance when it was first introduced over 10 years ago with many people saying that it is an idea that will burst and leave all of its participants hurt. Fast forward to this day and bitcoin has done more than anybody could have imagined.
Cryptocurrencies were created for different reasons, each cryptocurrency has its own use case and what it was created to solve but bitcoin was primarily created to disrupt the traditional payment method that is expensive, time-wasting and not transparent enough. It was built on the Distributed Ledger Technology or simply Blockchain Technology the aids its cause in making it a faster, cheaper, transparent and immutable method of payment.
As the whole cryptocurrency is gearing towards full mainstream adoption, there are a lot of things that the non-crypto and crypto users have to know. There are amazing and surprising facts that surround cryptocurrency. This, perhaps, is what makes cryptocurrency an ‘interesting adventure’. This article will share some of the surprising facts about cryptocurrency.
The Inventor of Bitcoin Nominated For The 2016 Nobel Prize In Economics
Satoshi Nakamoto is the widely recognized inventor of Bitcoin. He published a 2008 paper outlining the concept, and wrote the original software the underpins the internet’s most popular digital currency. But Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym, and despite some intense on-and-offline digital snooping, no-one knows anything at all about Nakamoto.
That hasn’t stopped UCLA Professor of Finance Bhagwan Chowdhry from nominating Nakamoto for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics. In a Huffington Post article, Chowdhry explains his choice:
The invention of bitcoin — a digital currency — is nothing short of revolutionary…it offers many advantages over both physical and paper currencies. It is secure, relying on almost unbreakable cryptographic code, can be divided into millions of smaller sub-units, and can be transferred securely and nearly instantaneously from one person tany other person in the world with access to internet bypassing governments, central banks and financial intermediaries such as Visa, Mastercard, Paypal or commercial banks eliminating time delays and transactions costs.
The Most Expensive Pizza in History Was Bought With Bitcoin
Worldwide, the 22nd of May is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day and the reason for this is because of a Hungarian Programmer, named Laszlo Hanyecz. He purchased two Papa John’s Pizzas for exactly 10,000 BTC which was worth around $30 — $41 at the time of the purchase. This was made such a big deal because no vendor accepted bitcoin as a form of payment at that time and this was officially the first documented purchase of goods that was done with Bitcoin. In today’s world, 10,000BTC is over $80 million, making it the most expensive pizza ever purchased.
“HODL” Actually Means Hold
The expression “HODL” is slang in the cryptocurrency community that refers to holding the cryptocurrency rather than selling it. A person who does this act is known as a “Hodler”. The expression appeared as a result of a typo from a Bitcointalk user who explained that he “HODL” because he’s bad at trading, in 2013. The expression still remained today.
There Are More Than 6 Million Cryptocurrency Wallets
There is no definite figure that is placed on the amount of cryptocurrency wallet that is available in the online space. It is, however, estimated that the total amount of active wallets that store cryptocurrency is between 6 million — 12 million. More than half of available cryptocurrency wallets offer the storage for more than one cryptocurrency.
The FBI Owns One of The Biggest Bitcoin Wallets
The FBI reportedly owns a bitcoin wallet with its approximate worth estimated at $120 million. This places them among the Biggest owners of Bitcoin. Perhaps, these funds were recovered from criminals but the figure nonetheless, remains among the biggest.
Small Amounts Of Bitcoin Are Called Satoshi
Just like the US dollar has cent and other fiat currencies have their own denomination, the small units or the fraction of bitcoin is called millibitcoin or satoshi, named after its founder. Satoshi is the 100 millionth of a Bitcoin and it equals to 0.00000001 bitcoin.
Around 64% Bitcoins on the blockchain are ghost coins
About 64% of all bitcoins that have ever existed, been mined on the blockchain and given to users are now inaccessible, this is either because the users have lost the private keys to their wallets, or the wallets themselves have been lost. They are now ghost coins that are not able to contribute to the cryptocurrency industry economy in any way, other than just existing as a nonexistent resource.
These are some of the surprising and interesting facts that surround the world of cryptocurrency.
