January 3rd 2023 – Bitcoin 14th Anniversary
Happy Genesis Block Day! January 3 is the 14th anniversary of Bitcoin’s Block Zero, its anchor in time.
The first sentence of the email has become iconic among the Bitcoin community:
“I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”
On January 3, 2009, the genesis block of the Bitcoin blockchain was mined by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, marking the first time in history that a completely digital and decentralized currency went online.
In the 14 years and three halvings since, Bitcoin has grown to become one of the most important financial instruments, clearly demonstrating that a non-central bank-controlled currency is capable of challenging the established monetary order.
That time, in 2009, was one of economic turmoil—and the aftershocks from that turmoil are still rocking our world in 2023.
The Genesis Block was never “mined” like every other Bitcoin block. That started with Block #1 when Satoshi Nakamoto released the software on SourceForge.
The hash from Block #0 was done with different software and hard-coded into the original Bitcoin protocol.
“Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” was the Times headline. Satoshi hid in the first block’s coinbase hash as a timestamp to prove there had been no mining on the Bitcoin network before he released the software to the public.
“The Chancellor will decide within weeks whether to pump billions more into the economy,” the original article in the Times said. In 2009 these seemed like desperate measures, and they were. Since 2009, though, governments across the Western world have indeed pumped billions, even trillions more, into their economies.
Satoshi was making a statement on irresponsible government interventions in the economy and their eventual erosion on markets.
“They actively sought to incentivise bad behaviour and push in typical Keynesian style the problem down the road. It would be a bigger problem, but it would be someone else’s problem.”
Just like the economy at large, Bitcoin is a long-term struggle against the worse aspects of human nature.
In the 14 years and three halvings since, Bitcoin has grown to become one of the most important financial instruments, clearly demonstrating that a non-central bank-controlled currency is capable of challenging the established monetary order.
10 most important Bitcoin Milestones
Bitcoin has reached numerous major milestones and faced several considerable obstacles over its nearly decade-and-a-half-long history.
Here are 10 events that had the biggest impact on Bitcoin so far:
- November 28, 2012: First Bitcoin halving
- February 28, 2014: Mt. Gox, the biggest Bitcoin exchange at the time, files for bankruptcy
- July 9, 2016: Second Bitcoin halving
- August 1, 2017: Bitcoin Cash hard fork
- May 11, 2020: Third Bitcoin halving
- February 8, 2021: Tesla invests in Bitcoin
- February 20, 2021: Bitcoin reaches $1 trillion market cap for the first time
- September 7, 2021: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
- November 14, 2021 – Taproot upgrade is activated
- November 11, 2022: Major crypto exchange FTX files for bankruptcy
Bitcoin has never closed in the red zone 2 years in a row: Will the trend continue?
Bitcoin price decreased by over -60% over the span of the last 12 months. However, there is a strong bullish precedent in play that could spell a major trend reversal in the coming months.
For starters, Bitcoin has never closed in the negative two years in a row. Granted, there is a relatively short set of historical price data to work with.
However, roughly speaking, Bitcoin has operated on 3 years of growth followed by 1 year of market retracement periods, at least so far
For world-renowned charities such as Save the Children, the White aper and the subsequent creation of Bitcoin have benefited the organization.
Antonia Roupell, Web3 lead at Save the Children, told Cointelegraph that the organization recognizes “Bitcoin’s potential to be a force for good and a force for financial inclusion,” adding:
“On Bitcoin’s 14th anniversary, and at a time of increasingly global financial inequality, the phrase ‘bitcoin is for anyone’ really resonates.”
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/
https://medium.com/
https://coincodex.com/
https://coingeek.com/
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