Bitcoin (BTC) Price and Analysis

Bitcoin Overview

Bitcoin(BTC)trade first appeared in the crypto scene in August 2008 when the domain bitcoin.org was registered. Later in 2008 a white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto. Only a few months later on January 3rd 2009, the Bitcoin network was born, and Satoshi mined the genesis block of Bitcoin, returning a reward of 50 Bitcoins.

So who is Satoshi Nakamoto? The truth is, nobody knows. Satoshi’s identity has never been revealed nor connected to a real identity, so no one knows whether Satoshi is a man, a woman, a group of people or whether they are still alive. During the early Bitcoin days, the first three years, in fact, Satoshi was active. He/she/they were developing the Bitcoin software and responding to communications from crypto enthusiasts but all of this would abruptly stop. Satoshi’s internet presence vanished in 2010, and the last known person to communicate with Satoshi was Mike Hearn, an early Bitcoin developer. If he is still alive, he still holds the keys to 1 million Bitcoin, giving him a hefty net worth.

The Bitcoin core code that was created by Satoshi is written in the C++ programming language and is open source, meaning it’s available to read and contribute to. Confident programmers can do so here. The Bitcoin core code has seen 611 contributions so far.

Up until 2010, Bitcoin was mined but not traded, which changed in 2010 when one miner called Hayecz decided to swap 10,000 Bitcoins for two large pizza’s from Papa John’s (around $30 at the time). After that, Bitcoin took off and we can only hope that Hayecz now sees the humor in losing out on millions of dollars for two pizzas.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and currently still the largest one by market capitalization, but it also initiated something big. By 2011 other rival cryptocurrencies were popping up everywhere, a trend we have seen continue to this day. There is a unique culture around Bitcoin in a way that doesn’t exist for many other crypto coins. For example, there is a group of crypto enthusiasts whose motto is “Use only bitcoin, eat only meat.” This group largely communicates online, gathering like-minded people who then meet up for a “meat-up” where they go for a steak or grilled meat.

In 2018 Bloomberg investigated the average Bitcoin owner and discovered that: 71% of Bitcoin owners are male, 58% are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old and over 50% are from an ethnic minority.