The drama that accompanies this story is described as joys, sadness, and nervousness, but if it is true, Bitcoin closes 2017 with a price of more than $ 15,000! It is multiplied by 15 from the initial price of $ 997.69 in January. This historical moment will be discussed by many generations in the future. We looked back in order to understand what happened with Bitcoin in 2017.
JANUARY
Bitcoin price breaks $1000 and the market capitalization exceeding $16 billion for the first time in 3 years – January 3, 2017
The media and the written press fix their eyes on this new world of cryptocurrencies, news about Bitcoin and potential exponential growth begins to circulate.
Many predictions arise and many issues to resolve such as scalability, the future of mining, SegWit and many more. All these issues will be put on the table in March when the “Consensus 2017” happens in New York.
FEBRUARY
That month started with a good news – LocalBitcoins increases operations in the US, China and Europe. Some countries in Africa and Latin America faced economic problems, which led to the devaluation of local currencies. People began to search for any possibilities to save their money. Such situations were an impulse to a wide spread of information about bitcoin. It started to be clear that cryptocurrency is a great tool for storing the savings. By the time, the number of services which accept bitcoin as a payment method incredibly growth.
The blockchain is already an interest for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs. Companies like Hitachi incorporate Blockchain in marketing tools.
February was a relatively quiet month but rising in the interest of bitcoin.
MARCH
The government of China starts a campaign against Bitcoin, trying to regulate it in all its parts. Bitcoin starts falling down to $ 100, the beginning of the heaviness, the ICO’s increase the interest for those who want to buy cheap “projects” from their preconception, but also increases ICO’s scams with Ponzi Scheme.
MAY
It was a month of “agreements” with the 2017 Consensus held in New York, which sought to reconcile Bitcoin updates through common agreements.
The attendee list was hundreds of industry CEO’s, policy leaders and financial services and enterprise tech executives (VP’s / Directors / MD’s and above), including:
Blockchain Capital, CME Ventures, Compound VC, Airbitz, Alpha Point, ANX International, Applied Blockchain Solutions, B2C2, BigchainDB, Bitcoin.com, BitGo, BitNovo, Blockchain, Blockstack, Blockseer, Blockstream, Bloq, Brave , Chain, Civic, Coinbase, Elliptic, Domus Tower, Hypatia Technologies, Hyperledger, Kraken, Ledger, Linux Foundation, Monax, Netki, Never Stop Marketing, OB1, PokitDok, Red Hat Clothing, Ripple, RSK Labs, SeedWise.Capital, ShapeShift, Simplex, Symbiont, The Sun Exchange, Tradeblock, Unocoin, ViewFin, WaveCrest, Xapo, and many more…
AUGUST
On August 1, the world enters panic after the announcement of the Bitcoin Hard Fork, many investors begin to sell and triggers a series of speculations that ignite the economic news.
The truth is that after August 1, Bitcoin bifurcated into two currencies, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, this new currency offers a larger block and better commissions for their transactions, it takes approximately another month to confirm the activation of the Hard Fork and starts a new twin of Bitcoin with all the news against.
The good news is that being a Hard Fork all those who kept their Bitcoins at the time of Hard Fork (21:00 UTC) achieved an exact amount of Bitcoin Cash.
Then it was only a matter of months for BCH or BCC as described by some people, was the third most important currency according to CoinMarketCap
SEPTEMBER
September 2017 will be remembered as one of the most difficult months of Bitcoin, experience a drastic fall after several important news for everyone who has invested money in cryptocurrencies.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said he would fire any employee trading Bitcoin for being “stupid.”
The cryptocurrency “won’t end well,” he told an investor conference in New York on Tuesday, predicting it will eventually blow up. “It’s a fraud” and “worse than tulip bulbs.” After one of the most important banks made a contradictory comment, China continues with the “bearish” from the government regulating ICO’s.
The Chinese government announced extreme measures in the regulation of ICO’s and crypto-monetary economies, according to reports from Yicai, the Chinese financial news agency.
The news is flooded with bad news. I have started the first big Bitcoin fall, the speculations are strong and it affects all the cryptocurrencies.
The news of the ban encouraged many ICO companies to find a way to return the money to investors to avoid getting into trouble with the government. Many ICO’s was canceled, while some continued tirelessly.
The announcement cited sources close to the financial decision makers within the government who indicated that the ban was only the beginning of the drama and that new stronger regulations are expected, in part to recover the Yuan in it’s deteriorated decline.
OCTOBER
Another Hard Fork of Bitcoin in block 491,407, this time Bitcoin Gold was born, with the proposal to return mining to home. The idea is to decentralize mining that today is dominated by large companies with very expensive equipment.
The team behind the Hard Fork appears to be a relatively small group, a Hong Kong-based LightningAsic CEO Jack Liao.
The alternative promises to use Bitcoin fork support but in home GPU equipment. The adoption of BTG generates acceptance quickly, large companies such as Freewallet, Coinomi, and MinerGate accept these new policies and improvements.
NOVEMBER
November rain for SegWit2x the next step of the Bitcoin update. It is a second part of the New York Agreement that was reached on May 23, 2017. This update means increasing the Bitcoin block up to two MB. SegWit corrected some errors and provided background for the following improvements. However, it did not solve the problem of small blocks. In the past, one MB could have been enough to meet the needs of users, but nowadays the amount of data is too large. It has a great impact on the confirmation rate of transactions and internal rates. And who likes high rates and anxious waiting for block confirmation?
Many of SegWit2x’s main supporters, including ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, Bitmain founder Jihan Wu, Xapo Wences Casares CEO, Blockchain CEO Peter Smith and SegWit2x lead developer Jeff Garzik, signed the official announcement of Belshe, officially announcing his retirement from the support of the SegWit2x hard fork.
When the SegWit2x cradle was finished and support for the solution was abandoned by its developer and leading companies, the Bitcoin price increased by more than 9 percent. Therefore, it is evident that the community has been anticipating a division of the chain that will not happen in mid-November and has relied on the medium-term performance of Bitcoin.
Who won with the SegWit2x?
The expectation of another Hard Fork with SegWith2x was so great that the investment in Bitcoin grew because in the Hard Forks of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold you received the same amount that you had stored in your wallet.
Segwit2x uses BIP 9 activation. This means that the rule change is governed by the percentage of miners running the new code. The miners had a lot of interest in it, because it increased profitability.
But in the democratic world of cryptocurrencies, the upgrade was not approved by the community, all those who had invested in BTC jumped to more stable alternative cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash and Monero, triggering the price.
November Bitcoin Cash record price: $2,382.51 USD
DECEMBER
In the beginning of this month, bitcoin has become one of the most discussed topics in the world. Every expert tried to understand and explain the constantly growing rate. Thus, on December 15, bitcoin broke through the historical maximum of value. After such a significant moment, a serious correction for more than 30 percent followed. The market swept panic and people massively went to the exchanges to sell their assets as soon as possible. To date, the situation has stabilized.
Every crypto enthusiast looks forward and wait for something new and special in 2018. Many experts predict new records and updates for bitcoin network. So, let’s see what will happen!
