Bitcoin: Evolution Over Time
In this post, we will analyze Bitcoin and its evolution over time.
It's probably the first time for many people that they hear concepts like Cryptocurrency or Blockchain or even Bitcoin.
But the reality is that all these concepts have existed for a long time. So much so that we can already talk about the history of Bitcoin.
In this article, we will see some of the most relevant events surrounding this innovation, organized chronologically to give us an idea of what is happening or what has happened up to this point.
You may also be interested:
Bitcoin evolution
In the first place, Bitcoin and all the technology necessary for its proper functioning is not an insignificant innovation.
That's why, as we mentioned, it's common for Satoshi Nakamoto to be considered a pseudonym used to cover up not just one person but a group of people who were involved in its design from its inception.
However, what has always been handled is that the development of all the technology began in 2007.
18/08/2008
Later in 2008, to be exact, on August 18th, the project manager(s) registered the official bitcoin.org website that serves to date as the main means of information on the project's progress.
The registration of this website was done through anonymousspeech.com which is basically a service that allows any person or entity to register a website, protecting their identity.
9/11/2008
The next step that the creators of the one you use would do was to register the project at sourceforge.net declaring it open source.
This basically means that anyone is free to go to this website or GitHub and download the code, which serves four main purposes.
First of all, it gives confidence to the whole project. Instead of handling it as a trade secret, controlled by a central company, and thus causing uncertainty in the way each Bitcoin operation is validated.
This is, in fact, the way banks work where there is no one to supervise them. Instead, the Bitcoin project was designed and thought out to be open.
That is, there would be no secret and the code would be available for anyone to download, review and realize that indeed the algorithms that verify and incorporate the transactions of the Bitcoin economy are robust and have no deviations.
This again gives you unprecedented confidence.
A second purpose is to improve because if you want to review the code, an expert programmer with a lot of skill in coding could realize some opportunity for improvement in lines of code in any of the different algorithms that compose it and correct it. Proposing this way a change for future versions.
Another purpose of making Bitcoin an open-source project is precise because this is the only way it can work since it requires the participation of both miners and nodes.
But at the end of the day, it is people who own these computers and no one is going to want to install software on their computer if they are not 100% confident that the code is not malicious.
This way the project was designed and thought to be transparent so that anyone can have the confidence to download that code and install it and serve either as a miner or as a node in this great network.
Finally, we have to mention that a project being open source allows for software developers to make adaptations to the software to such an extent that they build different and very specialized applications, which the original authors may not have considered.
These are built on top of the technology or by taking technology as their own. Fortunately, this is already happening and you have concepts such as intelligent contacts and some other functionalities and innovations.
3/1/2009
Another date of great significance was just on January 3, 2009, when the zero block or as it is recognized as the genesis block was created.
6/2011
Another important moment happened in June 2011 as WikiLeaks announced that it would start receiving Bitcoins for donations, attracting a lot of attention to cryptocurrencies.
Read also: Bitcoin and Litecoin: What are the differences?
4/2013
Later, an event occurred that few consider possible until that moment, and that was that in 2013, the value of bitcoin exceeded $100 for the first time.
16/5/2014
Then we have that on May 16, 2014, another giant joins the Bitcoin economy, as it is announced that overstock.com would start receiving payments with this cryptocurrency for all purchases made on its website.
2015
By 2015, we have already generated 14 million units of Bitcoin and the price remains in a stable range, for a considerable period of time.
2/5/2016
Later, in May 2016, Craig Wright, an Australian businessman made headlines by proclaiming himself the creator of Bitcoin, although he only did so to retract it a few hours later.
Leave a Reply