And the rest, as they said, is history …
Reading notes from article by OSATO AVAN-NOMAYO:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-turning-12-from-the-genesis-block-to-wall-street-adoption
BTC 12th Anniversary: From the Genesis block to Wall Street adoption
Jan. 3, 2009
- Satoshi mined the Genesis block, known as #0, coding it into the software.
Jan. 9, 2009
- The first block, or #1, was mined, putting a true start to the network as it is known today.
- Satoshi announced the news to the cryptography mailing list with a download link to Bitcoin 0.1.0 (which was only compatible with the Windows operating system) on the open-source software database platform Sourceforge.
Jan. 12, 2009
- Hal Finney received the first-ever BTC transaction.
“The possibility of generating coins today with a few cents of compute time may be quite a good bet.” ~ Hal Finney
The programmer and cryptographer enthusiast famously predicted that Bitcoin could attain world reserve currency status and reach $10 million per coin.
“It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on.” ~ Satoshi
October 2009
- Bitcoin (BTC) received its first official valuation.
- The New Liberty Standard, an early BTC exchange, created a benchmark price for Bitcoin set at 1,309 BTC to $1.
December 2009
- The first client version with Linux support through the release of Bitcoin 0.2.0.
May 2010
- Laszlo Hanyecz cemented his place forever in Bitcoin folklore, paying 10,000 BTC for pizza in what is widely considered to be the first “real-world” Bitcoin transaction.
2010
- Satoshi’s plea to Assange (WikiLeaks) was one of the last pieces of digital correspondence from the Bitcoin creator before exiting the scene completely.
2011
- Bitcoin appeared to be evolving from being a strictly cypherpunk affair to the realm of anarchists and proponents of a free market.
Middle of 2011
- Bitcoin was at $30, but a 25,000-BTC theft from a user’s slushpool account caused a great price crash.
- Graphics processing units and field-programmable gate arrays provide more efficient Bitcoin mining capabilities.
2013
- Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange platform handled over 70% of the global BTC trade.
- The news of hackers stole about 850,000 BTC between 2011 and 2014 caused another major Bitcoin price crash.
- Tech adoption was on the rise, leading to the emergence of such products as BTC storage devices by the likes of Elliptic.
- U.S. crypto exchange giant Coinbase came on the scene, raising $25 million in funding.
Between 2013 and 2014
- The beginning of several governments taking notice of Bitcoin.
2015
- Major altcoins projects such as Ethereum begun to emerge.
- The introduction of application-specific integrated circuits and the rise of industrial Bitcoin mining.
August 2017
- A chain split leading to the creation of Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
- Bitcoin’s price grew almost 20-fold from January 2017 to mid-December, almost eclipsing the $20,000 mark, followed immediately by a substantial and prolonged crash that bottomed out at $3,800 in early 2018.
- Several proponents arguing for institutional adoption as the next step in the Bitcoin evolution.
By mid-2019
BTC fundamentals continued to improve. The network hash rate topped 70 exahashes per second — more than 10 times the number of grains of sand on the planet.- Bitcoin derivatives took off, introducing markets such as futures and options contracts
- Mainstream firms such as Fidelity announced plans for Bitcoin custody solutions.
2020
- Bitcoin appeared to have become the darling of institutional investors.
- Hedge funds and corporations pursuing direct exposure to BTC.
- Some publicly listed companies added Bitcoin to their balance sheets, holding the top-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization as a treasury reserve asset amid recurrent currency debasement policies in major economies.
- Bitcoin shot past the $20,000 mark in late 2020.
Early days in 2021
- Bitcoin reached above $42,000, two times more than the magic number back in 2017.
What next?
Perhaps, government adoption is next on the agenda, and Bitcoin could become a reserve currency of a major world power.