Bitcoin Price Stats
- Circulating Supply: 19,154,200
- Supply Cap: 21,000,000
All Time High: $69,044.77 (-71.3%) Nov 10, 2021
All Time Low: $67.81 (29,138.1%) Jul 06, 2013
What is Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that operates free of any central control or the oversight of banks or governments. Instead, it relies on software and cryptography that functions on a Proof of Work (POW) network. It has a circulating supply of 19 Million BTC coins and a total supply of 21 Million.
Bitcoin is the top-rated cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap and Coingecko. Bitcoin can be purchased on centralized and decentralized exchanges as well as Bitcoin ATMs.
Some Bitcoin History
Bitcoin’s original inventor is known under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. As of today, the true identity of the person or organization behind the alias remains unknown.
On October 31, 2008, Nakamoto published Bitcoin’s whitepaper, which described in detail how a peer-to-peer, online currency could be implemented. They proposed to use a decentralized ledger of transactions packaged in batches (called “blocks”) and secured by cryptographic algorithms — the whole system would later be dubbed “blockchain.”
Two months later, on January 3, 2009, Nakamoto mined the first block on the Bitcoin network, known as the genesis block, thus launching the world’s first cryptocurrency. These words were also stamped in the genesis block: “Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks.” Many claim it was the start of the peaceful revolution that has changed millions of lives, and soon will change billions of lives.
When that revolution started, the bitcoin price was zero and most bitcoins were obtained via mining. At that time, mining only required moderately powerful devices such as personal computers and mining software. The first known Bitcoin commercial transaction occurred on May 22, 2010, when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. This event is now known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” In July 2010, Bitcoin first started trading, with the Bitcoin price ranging from $0.0008 to $0.08 at that time.
It was also in 2010 that Nakamoto handed over control of the repository containing the Bitcoin source code to Gavin Andresen, a software developer. Then, on April 23, 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent their last email: “I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”
Over the past decade, many people have contributed to improving the cryptocurrency’s software by patching vulnerabilities and adding new features.
Bitcoin’s source code repository on GitHub lists more than 750 contributors, with some of the key ones being Wladimir J. van der Laan, Marco Falke, Pieter Wuille, Gavin Andresen, Jonas Schnelli and others.
Currently, the Bitcoin Core maintainer team is led by Wladimir van der Laan. Its other members are Pieter Wuille, Marco Falke, Michael Ford, Jonas Schnelli and Samuel Dobson.
Advantages Of Bitcoin:
Potential for high returns
Immediate settlement and international transactions. No limits on transaction amounts
Protection from payment fraud and censorship-resistant
Revolutionizing the monetization of energy through (POW) mining
Permissionless, no counterparty risk because of self-custody
Its blockchain ledger is immutable
Concerns with Bitcoin:
High energy consumption due to its Proof of Work protocol
High volatility and potential for large losses
No Refund
Needs electricity to function
Use Cases:
- Legal tender in El Salvador and the Central African Republic.
- Accepted for tax payment in El Salvador, Central African Republic, States of Colorado, Florida, Ohio (USA)
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Store of Value
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Banking the Unbanked
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Digital Cash
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Programmable Money
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Online Payments
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Peer-to-Peer Transactions
Why I’m Bullish on Bitcoin?
The King of Crypto, Bitcoin, is here to stay. After 13 years and 5 bear markets, bitcoin adoption continues to be strong. Wallet addresses with one bitcoin are at an all-time high. Countries like El Salvador and the Central African Republic have made bitcoin legal tender and several US States like Colorado, Florida, and Ohio accept bitcoin for tax payments. Thousands of corporations across the world also accept bitcoin as payment. Bitcoin’s staying power and track record speaks for itself and are attributed to the fact that it is safe and secure.
Bitcoin has proven to be extremely secure as it is very difficult and costly to attempt a 51% attack (hack) on the system. Its transparency is second to none. Any person with an old computer can run a node to keep an eye on all transactions recorded on its immutable blockchain. Miners play a huge role in keeping bitcoin’s network safe.
Bitcoin mining is a business where individuals, corporations, and nations have to invest money for miners, real estate, energy, and labor. If a business fails due to inefficiencies there are no government bailouts. As a result of these economic realities, miners seek the cheapest sources of energy. Bitcoin miners will go to the most remote locations of the world to set up their mining operations if there is cheap and abundant energy. This makes bitcoin mining fascinating as it is revolutionizing how energy is being monetized.
With bitcoin mining, there is no need to incur heavy costs to transport energy, whether it is by ship, train, truck, or power lines to secure the network. Bitcoin mining can be done with various forms of energy from renewables to fossil fuels. Many bitcoin detractors argue that mining wastes too much energy, which is detrimental to the environment. However, if one were to take a deeper look at bitcoin mining, one would soon realize that it helps to solve the issue of energy overproduction. For instance, in the oil refinery process, more gas is produced than is necessary. Oil companies use flaring and venting as a means to eliminate excess gas by burning it, which releases damaging hydro-carbons in the atmosphere.
Bitcoin helps to solve this issue. Miners can set up next to refineries and can use the excess gas to turn it into electricity for bitcoin mining. This is something oil companies can do themselves and get compensated with bitcoin for securing the network instead of burning gas into the atmosphere.
This practice can also be used with the excessive production of hydroelectricity that gets wasted. Another way to think about it is to view bitcoin mining as an energy regulator serving to balance energy production while creating jobs at the same time.
Bitcoin is innovative because it is trustless. Meaning that there are no counterparty risks. An individual can purchase bitcoin and store it on a hard or hot wallet thus eliminating the need for banks or third parties to custody one’s bitcoin. In essence, you can be your ‘own bank’. Since there is no central issuer, bitcoin is decentralized and censorship-proof. Many bitcoin proponents call it “Freedom Money” since it is neutral and no one is forced to use it.
Being able to build on top of bitcoin is another reason why bitcoin is popular and gives hope for a brighter future with sound money. The addition of the Lightning Network (LN) makes bitcoin scalable. The LN can process up to 1 million transactions per second making it the most efficient payment system in the world in terms of transaction throughput. People can make or receive payments from each other in seconds and these are less costly, which are subsequently settled on the bitcoin network. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s paper stated that the “Lightning Network is turning bitcoin into money.” Time will tell if this is true.
At this moment, bitcoin is worth looking into due to its staying power and its immaculate conception. There was no pre-mine, nor was it created and backed by investors looking for a profit in return. In 2015, the CFTC defined Bitcoin as a commodity under the US Commodity Exchange Act. Bitcoin is the real deal amongst the almost 20,000 cryptocurrencies in existence and will continue to be the “King of Crypto” for the foreseeable future.
Sources:
The Bitcoin Standard: http://bit.ly/3Jbiedv
https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/oceo_bitcoinbasics0218.pdf
https://decrypt.co/resources/satoshi-nakamoto
https://tax.ohio.gov/static/documents/Cryptocurrency.pdf
https://bitcoinist.com/florida-will-allow-citizens-to-pay-taxes-in-bitcoin/
