The Bitcoin network as we know it today was officially launched exactly 12 years ago, when Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first software client.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown creator of Bitcoin, launched the first client network on this day 12 years ago, officially launching what is perhaps the greatest money revolution of the 21st century.
Six days earlier, on January 3, 2009, Satoshi undermined the Genesis Block, known as #0, by encoding it into the software. Unlike subsequent blocks in the chain, the Genesis Block’s reward in the form of coins cannot be spent, as only publicly mined „coins“ can be transferred. So the first block, or #1, was mined on January 9th, giving a real start to the network as it is known today.
At that time, Satoshi announced the news to the cryptography mailing list with a download link to Bitcoin Trader on the free software database platform Sourceforge.
Bitcoin 0.1.0 was only compatible with the Windows operating system. The first client version with Linux support didn’t arrive until December 2009 with the release of Bitcoin 0.2.0.
Billionaires, Teslas and Satoshi: Fun facts to celebrate the Bitcoin Genesis Block Day
1,309 BTC
Less than a week before releasing the first client software, Satoshi mined the Genesis Block, starting the network. Hal Finney received the first transaction with BTC on January 12, 2009.
At that time, early adopters were already open to the possibility of creating monetary value from computing power. According to Finney, „The ability to generate currency today with a few cents of computing time can be a good bet.
The enthusiastic programmer and cryptographer predicted that Bitcoin could reach the status of world reserve currency and reach 10 million dollars per coin. Satoshi agreed with Finney’s optimistic expectations, adding, „It might make sense to get something in case it becomes trendy.
However, it was in October 2009 that Bitcoin (BTC) received its first official assessment. At that time, the New Liberty Standard, one of the first BTC exchanges, created a reference price for Bitcoin, setting it at 1,309 BTC at $1.
Pizza, WikiLeaks and the Satoshi outing
The first miners caught up with Bitcoin, while the network was still in its infancy. Some even created Bitcoin faucets that help promote greater BTC penetration.
In May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz cemented his place forever in Bitcoin folklore, paying 10,000 BTC for a pizza in what’s considered the first „real world“ transaction with Bitcoin.
WikiLeaks, isolated from funding sources, turned to Bitcoin and some early adopters encouraged Julian Assange to consider adopting BTC. Satoshi cautioned Assange against the course of action, arguing that a partnership with WikiLeaks could bring unnecessary problems to the fledgling project.
In fact, Satoshi’s request to Assange was one of the last pieces of digital correspondence from the creator of Bitcoin before he left the scene entirely.
Buenbit claims that Bitcoin is a gold substitute that will work as the best reservoir of value
Silk Road and the expansion of mining
By 2011, Bitcoin seemed to be evolving from being a strictly cybernetic affair to being the realm of anarchists and free marketers. Silk Road, the now extinct Darknet market, made its appearance with BTC as a popular payment method for illegal trafficking of drugs and other prohibited substances.
On the market side, Bitcoin reached the milestone of a dollar price when attention began to spread to the wider technology community. In mid-2011, Bitcoin was at $30, but a 25,000 BTC theft from a user’s slushpool account caused a huge price drop.
Bitcoin mining was also evolving, and personal computers could no longer provide enough hash power to secure the expanded network. Graphics processing units and field-programmable gate arrays now provided more efficient Bitcoin mining capabilities.
Mt. Gox, Technology Adoption and Natives of Cryptcoin
In 2010, Stellar founder Jed McCaleb established the Bitcoin Mt. Fast forwarding to 2013, the platform handled more than 70% of BTC’s worldwide trading. Mt. Gox seemed too big to fail, but it did, in fact, when hackers stole about 850,000 BTCs between 2011 and 2014. The news of the thefts caused another big drop in Bitcoin’s price.