CRYPTOCURRENCY: THE SAGA UNVIELD – Peter Jack

So here is the story of how cryptocurrencies came into existence:

1998–2009 The pre-Bitcoin years

Sure Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that was ever created officially, but there had been previous attempts for creating online currencies with ledgers secured by encryption. For example B-Money and Bit Gold. These cryptocurrencies were formulated but never fully developed.

2008 — The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto

There was a paper published by a mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto called “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, which explained the concept of cryptography. His real identity remains unknown till date.

2009 — The Rise Of Bitcoin

This was the year when cryptocurrency and mining were finally available to the general public. Mining is the process by which the new cryptocurrency is created.

2010 — When The Bitcoin Was Valued For The First Time

After a year of mining, it was the year when the bitcoin was first used for a transaction officially. The first cryptocurrency payment was made for 2 large papa john’s pizzas by using 10K Bitcoin (BTC)s (which were worth $4O at that time).

2011 — Rival cryptocurrencies emerge

Meanwhile, as the Bitcoin cryptocurrency gained popularity, even other players showed up in the market. They launched their own cryptocurrencies by providing better speed and anonymity. Some of the examples of the first competitors of Bitcoin were — Litecoin & Namecoin.

2013 — Bitcoin price crashes

As the prices of the Bitcoin had reached near $1K USD, it soon enough started falling down and reached around $300 USD. This event gave investors a great shock.

2014 — Scams and theft

There was a time when even Bitcoin, was vulnerable. Being a secure and anonymous cryptocurrency attracted for phishing attacks from hackers. The incident of Mt. Gox (the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange) going offline all of a sudden in early 2014, resulted in the loss of $85OK USD for investors at that time.

2016 — Ethereum and ICOs.

This was the time when Ethereum was gaining popularity over Bitcoin. It provided blockchain-based smart contracts and apps. Smart contracts are the self-regulatory contracts which don’t need any third party involvement. Also, this was the time when ICO came into existence. ICO (Initial Coin Offerings) offered a chance for investors to use cryptocurrencies to invest in startups just like they would in its stock.

2017 –Bitcoin reaches continues to grow

Here, Bitcoin spread its reach to various places across the globe which resulted in its increased popularity. As more and more uses of Bitcoin emerged, it was found that more money was flowing into the crypto ecosystem. This lead to an increase in the market capital of Cryptocurrencies.

In a nutshell, we can say that cryptocurrency had its ups and downs but has continued its growth over the years. It has the potential to gain more market share and replace the normal currency.