Although many people have only recently become familiar with Bitcoin (BTC), those who are in the know realize that this is a very special week for cryptocurrency. It was exactly one decade ago that Bitcoin’s genesis block was mined, jumpstarting an entirely new type of currency that the world had never seen before. Although a lot has changed since the genesis block was mined—Bitcoin is now valued at over $3,500 as opposed to the mere pizza one of the first coins was traded for—some things have remained the same. For instance, the identity of the creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, is still a mystery.
There are parts of the Bitcoin origin story that we know to be true; Hal Finney and Nick Szabo, if not actually Satoshi Nakamoto themselves, were at the very least heavily involved with the beginnings of Bitcoin. The first murmurings about the digital currency started to surface after the whitepaper was making rounds in late 2008. By 2013, Bitcoin was making headline news. It seemed as if everyone wanted in on this amazing new investment opportunity, but many investors did not realize that cryptocurrency can be a great deal more volatile than investing in the stock market or pretty much anything else. It wasn’t long, however, before the new investors learned this important lesson. A severe dip brought about one of the first publicized Bitcoin frenzies.
Online publications couldn’t seem to get enough of dramatic crypto stories, and they still can’t. After all, it’d difficult to conjure up a similar event in recent financial history. No other asset has skyrocketed and dipped so wildly, which was proven again during the bull run of late 2017. The price of BTC shot up to $20,000, and many new investors unfortunately got caught up in the excitement. These were people who had not learned the lessons of 2013, and many invested their life savings, only to see Bitcoin predictably plummet once again.
Now cryptocurrency is in a bear market, but the vast majority of financial experts believe that it is the future of finance. Not connected to any government, Bitcoin isn’t subject to the slings and arrows of the regular stock market. Many in the community like to marvel at how quickly one can transfer millions of dollars—and how little the cost is to move money. A decade after its inception, Bitcoin burns brighter than ever before.
