Bitcoin is the main cryptocurrency in the world. It is a peer-to-peer currency and transaction system based on a decentralized consensus-based public ledger called the blockchain that records all transactions.
Now, Bitcoin was conceived in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, but it was the product of decades of cryptographic and blockchain research, not just the work of one man. The utopian dream of cryptographers and free trade advocates was to have a decentralized, borderless currency based on the blockchain. Their dream has become a reality with the rise in popularity of Bitcoin and other altcoins around the world.
In 2009, the cryptocurrency was first deployed on a consensus-based blockchain and began trading for the first time in the same year. In July 2010, the price of Bitcoin was only 8 cents, and the number of miners and nodes was much smaller compared to the tens of thousands today.
Within one year, the new alt currency rose to $1, and it was an interesting prospect for the future. Mining was relatively easy and people made good money making deals and even paying with them in some cases.
Within six months, the currency doubled again to $2. Although the price of Bitcoin is not stable at a certain price point, it has shown this pattern of crazy growth for some time. At one point in July 2011, the coin went crazy and hit a record high of $31, but the market soon realized that it was overvalued compared to the returns achieved on the ground and corrected it to $2.
December 2012 saw a healthy rise to $13, but soon enough the price was bound to jump. In the four months to April 2013, the price had risen to a whopping $266. It later returned to $100, but this astronomical price increase first brought it fame and people started discussing the real scenario with Bitcoin in the real world.
It was around that time that I was introduced to a new currency. I had my doubts, but the more I read about it, the more it became clear that the currency was the future because it had no one to manipulate or impose itself on it. Everything had to be done with complete consensus, and that made him so strong and free.
So 2013 was a breakthrough year for the currency. Large companies have begun publicly advocating for Bitcoin adoption, and blockchain has become a popular subject for computer science programs. Many thought at the time that Bitcoin had served its purpose and would now settle down.
But the currency has become even more popular, with Bitcoin ATMs being installed all over the world, and other competitors have started playing their muscles in various corners of the market. Ethereum developed the first programmable blockchain, and Litecoin and Ripple became cheaper and faster alternatives to Bitcoin.
The magic number of $1,000 was crossed for the first time in January 2017, and since then it has grown four times by September. This is a truly remarkable achievement for a coin that was worth just 8 cents just seven years ago.
Bitcoin even experienced a hard fork on August 1, 2017, and has since gained nearly 70%, while even the Bitcoin Cash fork managed to see some success. It all has to do with the appeal of the coin and the stellar blockchain technology behind it.
Although traditional economists claim that this is a bubble and the entire crypto world will collapse, this is simply not the case. There is no such bubble because the observed fact is that it essentially ate up the stocks of fiat currencies and money corporations.
The future is very bright for Bitcoin and it is never too late to invest in it, both in the short and long term.