On October 31, 2008, a person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published the white paper of Bitcoin. In the nine-page technical document, the principle of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system was described, which would later spark a revolution in financial technology.
The key characteristics of the first cryptocurrency were summarized by Nakamoto in the preface to his document:
“A fully peer-to-peer version of electronic money would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main advantages are undermined if a trusted third party is required to prevent double spending. We propose a solution based on a peer-to-peer network. It timestamps transactions and links them in a chain of proof-of-work, hashed together.”
Bitcoin’s network launched in January 2009. And in April 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared, and the public has never learned who wrote the document that lies at the heart of the multi‑billion‑dollar industry.
Over 13 years, the first cryptocurrency has come a long way from ephemeral ‘fun-tokens’, 10,000 of which would barely have been enough to buy two pizzas, to a powerful financial instrument with a market capitalization of $1.16 trillion.
In Bitcoin invest by major funds and public companies, financiers consider the asset as a hedge against inflation, and some countries even equate it to an official monetary unit.
According to Glassnode, as of writing, the digital gold sits on more than 38 million addresses, and the number of active addresses exceeds 1 million. At its January 2021 peak, the network processed more than 400,000 transactions per day.
By now, miners have mined more than 18.85 million BTC — nearly 90% of the total supply, which is capped at 21 million coins.
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