Hi everyone! October 31st, 2017 marks the 9th Birthday of "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." Nine years ago, the pseudonymous and mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto released the official Bitcoin whitepaper, and started the cryptocurrency revolution that is still developing today.
In this article, we'll look through a timeline of cryptocurrencies and BTC. We'll skim through many of the events that pushed cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin onto the global stage. Let's begin!
A Timeline of Bitcoin
See below for a brief timeline of Bitcoin.
In August of 2008, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto registered the domain
bitcoin.org, and in November released the Bitcoin Whitepaper to a cryptography mailing list.
In January 2009, the blockchain begins filling up with blocks, and the first P2P transaction is sent between Satoshi and developer Hal Finney.
The first Bitcoin exchange is established by _New Liberty Standard_, with the beginning Bitcoin price at around $0.0007 USD.
The first public "real-world" transaction occurs in early 2010. 10,000 BTC (currently worth over $60M) is transacted to buy 2 _Papa John's_ pizzas.
In February 2011, Bitcoin touches the $1 USD price.
The Bitcoin Foundation is created with the purpose of protecting and promoting Bitcoin, in late 2012.
In early 2013, Bitcoin hits a market cap of one billion dollars.
In May 2013, the first Bitcoin ATM is unveiled.
In late 2014, Microsoft began their acceptance of Bitcoin. BTC could be used to purchase Xbox games, Windows Store apps, and more.
In early 2016, the Bitcoin network recorded a total hashpower of 1 Exahash per second.
In early 2017, the price of Bitcoin exceeded the spot price of 1 ounce of Gold for the first time.
The United States SEC forms a "Crypto Unit" with powers related to cryptocurrencies and ICOs.
It's October 31st, 2017, and Bitcoin is celebrating it's 9-year birthday. We love you, Bitcoin.
Conclusions
Though the above timeline is accurate and includes many milestone events, there are a few cryptocurrency events we may have missed.
A notable one for us here on STEEM is March 2016, when the STEEM Whitepaper was released, beckoning the creation of the first social media blockchain we know and use today.
Hopefully you've enjoyed this nine-year journey, no matter when you hopped in. I know I have.
Thanks for reading,
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