History and Evolution of Bitcoin

By Trevor On Jul 20, 2024

2008: The concept of Bitcoin was introduced by an unknown person or group of people using the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto“. In October, Nakamoto published a white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” which outlined the principles of a decentralized digital currency.
2009: The Bitcoin software was released as open-source code in January. The first block, known as the Genesis Block or Block 0, was mined by Nakamoto on January 3rd, marking the launch of the Bitcoin network. The first transaction occurred on January 12th, when Nakamoto sent 10 Bitcoins to Hal Finney, a computer programmer and early Bitcoin contributor.

2010: Bitcoin gained economic value, with the first real-world transaction recorded on May 22nd when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. This event is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day. This year also saw the establishment of the first Bitcoin exchanges, such as Mt. Gox.
2011: Bitcoin began to gain more mainstream attention, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation starting to accept Bitcoin donations. However, Bitcoin also became associated with illicit activities due to its use on platforms like the Silk Road, an online black market.

2012-2013: Bitcoin’s popularity soared as media coverage and adoption increased. Major companies began to accept Bitcoin, and regulatory discussions were initiated in countries around the world. In 2012, the establishment of the Bitcoin Foundation added to the advancement and adoption of the digital currency. In 2013, Bitcoin crossed the mark of $1,000 for the first time.
2014: The Mt. Gox exchange collapsed after losing approximately 850,000 Bitcoins, causing a great deal of market turmoil and underlining the need for better security and regulatory oversight.

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2015-2016: Still, Bitcoin continued developing with serious upgrades, such as the implementation of the Segregated Witness protocol in 2015 that improved transaction efficiency. More merchants and financial institutions began to explore Bitcoin and blockchain technology.
2017: The prices of Bitcoin went through the roof, almost touching $20,000 by December of that year. That was also a year when Bitcoin futures trading was introduced in the most significant exchange—the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, marking an entry into mainstream financial markets. However, scalability issues and high transaction fees led to the creation of Bitcoin Cash through a hard fork in August.

2018-2019: The price of Bitcoin corrected hugely after the 2017 bubble, leading to a bear market. Nevertheless, there was growing interest from companies such as Fidelity Investments and the Intercontinental Exchange in launching Bitcoin-related products and services.
2020: The COVID-19 pandemic brought increased interest in Bitcoin due to economic uncertainty that drove interest in Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Major companies like MicroStrategy and Tesla announced huge investments into Bitcoin. Even PayPal started offering Bitcoin trading from its platform.

2021: Bitcoin made new all-time highs above $60,000 in April. More and more companies and financial institutions integrated Bitcoin, so institutional adoption accelerated. In June, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
2022-2023: Volatility in the market brought Bitcoin lower, with much of the rest of the economy, on news of rising inflation and regulatory scrutiny. That didn’t stop the development of the network with updates in the Lightning Network to improve transaction speed and cost efficiency. Bitcoin remained a point of discussion in the evolution of digital currencies and financial innovation.