Bitcoin and the 15-year journey leading the cryptocurrency market

Bitcoin and the 15-year journey leading the cryptocurrency marke

Happy New Year 2024!

Today, January 3, 2024, is a special day for the crypto community at large and Bitcoin enthusiasts in particular. It marks 15 years since the first bitcoins were created in block number 1, also known as the Bitcoin Genesis Block.

Over these 15 years since the mainnet launch, Bitcoin has played the role of a guiding beacon through countless ups and downs in the cryptocurrency market. In today's article, let's sit down and revisit the story while honoring the achievements of the "king" of Bitcoin.

Historical milestones of Bitcoin

1. The mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto and the Bitcoin Whitepaper
   On October 31, 2008, an email titled "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper" was sent to a group of cryptography experts and tech enthusiasts from an address under the name "Satoshi Nakamoto."

The content of the email read:

"I am doing research on a new fully decentralized digital cash system, not relying on trusted third parties."
The email led the recipients to a PDF document detailing Bitcoin: "http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf." Later, this document became known as the Bitcoin Whitepaper.

From here, the history of global currency changed forever!

1. Bitcoin Genesis Block
   Sixty-four days after the Whitepaper email, on January 3, 2009, the Bitcoin network officially launched. Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Genesis Block—the founding block of the Bitcoin network. This moment marked the official mainnet launch of the largest cryptocurrency in the market.

To commemorate this special event and to send a message to future generations, Satoshi encoded a message into this first block. The encoded message read:

"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."

The Times newspaper on January 3, 2009: The Chancellor prepares a second bank bailout package.

The message references the headline of The Times (UK) published on January 3, 2009.

Perhaps Satoshi wanted to allude to the fiat currency's limitless supply and its readiness for printing at any time.

1. The first transaction on the Bitcoin network
   On January 12, 2009 (9 days after the Genesis Block), Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoins to cryptographer Hal Finney. This transaction took place in block 170, proving the system's feasibility.
2. Bitcoin enters the open market
   The first Bitcoin transactions were executed through the BitcoinTalk forum shortly after its creation on November 22, 2009, approximately 10 months and 18 days after the Genesis Block.

Buyers and sellers negotiated and exchanged directly with each other, a model still known as Over-the-Counter (OTC). Its price was determined by the cost of electricity consumption during mining. At that time, its price was 0.00076 USD/BTC.

This event officially marked Bitcoin's transition from being an undefined valuable asset to being defined by market supply and demand in an open free market.

1. The first commercial transaction - Bitcoin Pizza Day
   On May 22, 2010 (1 year, 4 months, and 16 days after the Genesis Block), Bitcoin demonstrated its commercial viability by paying for two pizzas.

This order was placed by software engineer Laszlo Hanyecz with pizza seller Jeremy Sturdivant. The amount paid was 10,000 BTC, equivalent to ~40 USD at the time, now valued at ~420 million USD.

Laszlo Hanyecz during the Bitcoin Pizza Day commemoration in 2018

Since then, May 22nd every year is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day—a momentous occasion for the global BTC community.

1. The first centralized Bitcoin exchange
   One year, 6 months, and 15 days after the Genesis Block, on July 18, 2010, Jed McCaleb introduced the first centralized Bitcoin exchange named Mt.Gox. This platform allowed users to exchange fiat currency for Bitcoin, listing Bitcoin at a price of 0.05 USD/BTC. This event signaled increasing interest in Bitcoin as a form of digital asset.

Later, Jed McCaleb sold Mt. Gox to Mark Karpeles, a French-born developer. Under Karpeles' leadership, Mt. Gox experienced both significant successes and disastrous failures.

At its peak, Mt. Gox handled approximately 70% of global Bitcoin trading volume, making it the leading Bitcoin exchange globally at that time. However, in 2014, disaster struck Mt. Gox when it suffered a massive loss of user assets. This incident had a profound impact on the cryptocurrency market, especially regarding transaction security awareness.

To this day, the consequences of Mt. Gox's collapse have yet to be fully resolved.

1. The last appearance of Bitcoin's creator - Satoshi Nakamoto
   Satoshi Nakamoto's final message posted on the BitcoinTalk forum before disappearing discussed an update and emphasized that there was much work left to do. This final post was written on December 12, 2010 (1 year, 11 months, and 7 days after the Genesis Block).

Following this post, the community never saw his presence again. Notably, prior to this, Satoshi had expressed concerns about Wikileaks using Bitcoin.

"It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us," Satoshi's post.

Satoshi's complaint post on the BitcoinTalk forum

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes leaks of news and classified media provided by anonymous sources.

1. The first encrypted cryptocurrency market - Silk Road
   The influx of WikiLeaks and the Silk Road black market demonstrated Bitcoin's core value—censorship resistance.

Silk Road was a website created for trading illegal products and services. It was established by Ross Ulbricht on February 6, 2011 (2 years, 1 month, and 3 days after the Genesis Block).

In October 2013, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested the founder and shut down the website. The Silk Road event significantly contributed to linking Bitcoin with criminal activities. Nevertheless, it also forever remembered Bitcoin as an uncensored decentralized payment asset.

1. The $1 milestone for each BTC
   On February 9, 2011, the transaction value of each Bitcoin exceeded $1 for the first time, demonstrating its attractiveness to investors. Thus, it took 2 years, 1 month, and 6 days from the first block for Bitcoin to rise from being valueless to reaching $1/BTC.
2. The first bull run season
   Although listed on centralized exchanges from mid-2010, it wasn't until 2011 that Bitcoin officially entered its first significant bull run season.

The $1 USD/BTC milestone at the beginning of 2011 set the stage for strong growth in the following months. In June 2011, Bitcoin reached its peak at $31 USD/BTC. However, shortly after, it began to reverse and fell to around $2 USD in November of the same year.

This rapid growth and subsequent "burst" at its peak were among the first examples for investors of the cryptocurrency market's volatility.

1. The first halving event
   After 1,425 days since the mainnet launch, Bitcoin reached block 210,000 and executed its first halving event. It occurred on November 28, 2012 (3 years, 10 months, and 25 days after the Genesis Block), reducing the block reward from 50 to 25 BTC.

Halving is a pre-programmed event on the Bitcoin network, occurring approximately every 210,000 blocks or about every 4 years. This ensures its scarcity as the supply diminishes over time.

1. The $100 milestone for each BTC
   On April 2, 2013 (4 years, 3 months, and 10 days after the Genesis Block), after months of continuous growth, Bitcoin quickly reached the $100 mark per BTC. It took only 2 years, 1 month, and 23 days for Bitcoin's value to increase 100 times from when it first reached $1 USD/BTC.
2. The first Bitcoin ATM
   The first Bitcoin ATM was launched on October 29, 2013 (4 years, 9 months, and 11 days after the Genesis Block) in Vancouver, Canada. This ATM was located at Waves Coffee House and was produced by Robocoin, a company based in Las Vegas, USA. It allowed users to buy and sell Bitcoin by converting between fiat currency and Bitcoin.

Bitcoin ATM at Waves Coffee House

This event marked a significant step forward in the widespread adoption and acceptance of Bitcoin.

1. The $1,000 USD/BTC milestone and $1 billion market cap
   On November 27, 2013 (4 years, 10 months, and 17 days after the Genesis Block), Bitcoin first reached a market cap of $1 billion USD. Just one day later, on November 28, 2013, its price exceeded $1,000 USD.

This event placed Bitcoin among the billion-dollar projects, completely changing traditional investor perspectives from a valueless asset just four years prior.

Following this hot growth phase, Bitcoin continued to undergo an 87% decline from its ATH of ~$1,160 USD to prepare for the next frenzied growth cycle.

1. The second halving event
   The second halving event took place on July 9, 2016 (7 years and 184 days after the Genesis Block). During this second halving event, the block reward decreased from 25 to 12.5 BTC.
2. Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork
   By 2017, stemming from disagreements within the Bitcoin community regarding how to scale transaction volumes, one side wanted to increase block size while the