ADN Vision: Committing to ICOs as We Reminisce Crypto
ADN vision is to conduct safe ICOs for top-notch DApps. In this blog, we reminisce crypto as we anticipate the 11th anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper.
We are one month away from commemorating the time when the Bitcoin whitepaper was published. For some, it was only a technical document revealing a new technology. But for the rest of us, the very words etched in the paper allowed us to imagine a new kind of future.
We at ADN are reaffirming our commitment to make an ICO platform which will allow peers to fund blockchain-based projects without going through any financial institution. And as we remember the events that have taken place after the fateful release of the said document, we also reminisce about the triumphs, as well as the losses, making sure that we will learn the lessons that come with them.
The Dawning of Bitcoin
The Bitcoin.org domain was registered on August 18, 2008. Two months after, the Bitcoin whitepaper was first published by the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity eludes us to this day. It not only captured the attention of many tech-savvy individuals due to its proposition of a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system” but due to the technical clarity it gave. This was published in the wake of the 2008 market crash.
On January 3, 2009, the first Bitcoin was mined, along with the blockchain network’s genesis block. A couple of days later, Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney, a computer scientist. These did not have their market valuation just yet, and it took another year for its users to put a value on each coin. A guy who went by the name Laszlo Hanyecz orders two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC.
In 2011, other Bitcoin alternatives such as Litecoin, Namecoin, and Swiftcoin made their appearance. These were later on referred to as altcoins. It was also during this year when Bitcoin began to be accused of having been used in the Dark Web for criminal activities. Nevertheless, it began to enter other more mainstream platforms such as the US drama series The Good Wife.
Bitcoin reached another milestone yet again in 2013 when an ATM that caters to Bitcoin users was installed in Vancouver, Canada. Now, there are thousands of installed Bitcoin ATMs all over the world. Ethereum was proposed in the same year by Vitalik Buterin. However, the cryptocurrency began its development only in 2014 after its founders have conducted a presale. It was also in 2014 when the Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange MT Gox — one of the most popular crypto exchanges at that time — announced bankruptcy after having been hacked with 850,000 BTC taken away. A recent development reveals that a Russia-based law firm claims to have identified the persons behind the crime. Popular payments service PayPal also announced its partnership with 3 Bitcoin platforms, signifying its first acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a valid payment option along with fiat money.
Ethereum and Other Developments
Ethereum was launched in 2015, wherein it introduced another function of blockchain technology, which is the execution of smart contracts that can be used in a plethora of ways, including the creation of decentralized applications (DApps). It was also during this year when the Lightning Network was described in a whitepaper by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja.
After facing various scalability issues, the Bitcoin blockchain was split into two, namely Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Before this fork in 2017, Bitcoin already experienced other forks before, but Bitcoin Cash was deemed more successful because it was backed by a good number of supporters, including Roger Ver, dubbed Bitcoin Jesus. It was also in 2017 when the world saw a spike in initial coin offerings (ICO). Binance also began its operations this year, and before 2017 ended, Bitcoin was trading at almost $20,000 per piece.
The Crypto Winter
2018 began in a slow decline in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
EOS, another blockchain ecosystem which implements Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS), concluded its year-long ICO, amassing a whopping $4.6 billion — the biggest crypto crowdfunding effort ever recorded. Nevertheless, the community suffered its most chilling crypto winter ever, wherein crypto prices plummeted that it was almost considered to be dead beyond the point of resuscitation. On January 1, 2018, each Bitcoin was priced at almost $20,000; on October 31, 2018 — exactly 10 years after the publishing of the Bitcoin whitepaper — the cryptocurrency was trading at about $6,300 per piece.
The winter got worse, persisting until early 2019, wherein each Bitcoin was priced at about $3,400. The Bitcoin Cash community also underwent a split, leading to another cryptocurrency named Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision).
Alongside this, ICO was considered to be dead and beyond mending, as it has become a means for swindlers to extort money from unsuspecting victims.
On to 2019 and Beyond
For some reason, however, many cryptocurrencies have shaken off the chills of winter, and are showing new signs of life. Mid-2019, each Bitcoin was trading at $11,000 each, even though Ethereum has yet to bounce back in price from its glory days in early 2018.
Social media giant Facebook also announced its plans to launch its own cryptocurrency Libra, which might pave the way to another class of digital assets. More and more financial institutions are beginning to warm to cryptocurrencies, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
Reaffirming the ADN Commitment
We at ADN also remember 2019 as the year we formally introduced ourselves to the crypto world. Our team, led by CEO Ron Lim and Co-CEO Jon Ban, is composed of dedicated individuals who believe in the future which cryptocurrency and blockchain technology can usher in. We understand that our mission is to revamp ICO to ensure that swindlers will not be able to exploit the crowdfunding platform to their advantage.
We believe that ICO is not dead — far from it. It has evolved and is continuously evolving to become a classic crowdfunding platform for the crypto community. By weighing in the ecosystems of notable predecessors like Ethereum, TRON, and EOS, we are developing our mainnet to ensure that we will be offering the best of all those worlds to the best we can.
Our ICO Wallet is another innovation that we are devoting our time and resources to. We are developing it alongside the mainnet, making sure that they will sync properly and that we would be able to get rid of bugs and other threats that could compromise the security of our crowdfunding platform.
