Cryptocurrency is a means of payment that exists only on the Internet. This money does not have a paper expression, does not depend on states and banks. The digital currency exchange is built on the blockchain system - a chain of information blocks without intermediaries and with equal participants. Anyone can send and receive payments independently, anytime, anywhere.
History of cryptocurrencies
The first bitcoin coin appeared on the network in 2009, since that time the number of cryptocurrencies has been constantly growing. The idea of creating a worldwide information network was discussed already in the sixties of the last century, but the first real actions were carried out only twenty years later. Then began the exchange of data for brokerage trading on stock exchanges. The concept of fast transactions with assets and derivatives has become relevant.
The implementation of the idea of cryptocurrency was carried out by American cryptographers David Chaum and Stefan Brands, they compiled the first electronic money protocols. DigiCash was founded in 1990, introducing the eCash system and ensuring the privacy of payments and data. The platform went bankrupt in 1998, but many liked the idea of fast payments.
In 1997, Adam Back introduced technology that is resistant to spam and DoS attacks. Later, HashCash was improved by Hal Finney, he managed to introduce block chains in transaction operations. Based on this technology, the first b-money (Wei Dai, 戴维) and bit gold (Nick Szabo) blockchains arose a year later. Both developers used a decentralized ledger, thanks to their efforts, the foundation was laid for the future of bitcoin. Hal Finney built the first blockchain in 1998.
Several people participated in the creation of blockchain technology, but the final solution to the idea of cryptocurrencies was embodied by someone under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Probably, this name hides a group of specialists who announced in 2007 the formation of a decentralized chain of blocks and the creation of a digital currency. From that moment on, bitcoin began to move rapidly:
- 2008. Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper with information about bitcoin, a description of the operation of the digital payment system and the main features of blockchain and bitcoin.
- 2009. At the beginning of the year, the first Bitcoin 0.1/0.1.0/0.1.5 clients appeared. In the Genesis 0 generated block, the first 50 BTC were received and a test transaction was made. In September, Marty Malmi sold 5050 bitcoins for $5.02, the money was transferred to a PayPal account. In November, the bitcoin.org portal was created, and the formation of the crypto community began. A little later, the bitcointalk.org forum was launched. In December, the Bitcoin 0.2 client could already run on Linux and generate blocks in parallel streams, which significantly increased the efficiency of mining. Cryptocurrency became interested in ordinary users.
- 2010. Bitcoin 0.3 was released this summer. Mining became more difficult, but the number of users grew rapidly. To speed up the processes, a user under the nickname ArtForz opened the first crypto farm. In August, there was a serious system failure, the attackers generated 184 billion coins and sent them to two addresses. The bug was quickly fixed and the network was transferred to a new version that eliminates problems with hackers. In November, the mining pool Slush's Pool was formed, in which it became easier for users to generate network blocks and provide a stable income from mining. At the end of the year, the final version of the Bitcoin client (0.3.9) was released.
Satoshi Nakamoto left the project without explanation.
Interesting facts
- A thousand people on the planet own half of all mined cryptocurrency, it is impossible to determine the names. Another 20% of bitcoins are in wallets, access to which is lost.
- American Laszlo Heinitz made the first purchase with bitcoins. On May 22, 2010, he bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. Now this day is considered the official holiday of the cryptocurrency community. Laszlo became a celebrity - at the current rate, the amount paid for a simple meal could be $ 83 million.
- Once, a Bloomberg journalist inadvertently showed his QR code from a crypto wallet live. Fraudsters immediately took advantage of this.
By buying cryptocurrency, everyone expects to earn on growth. For example, in 2015 bitcoin was worth $200, and in 2021 its price exceeded $60,000 (and dropped to $20,000 in 2022). Thus, with high risks, the purchase of cryptocurrency remains the most profitable type of investment.
