With the onset of the pandemic, interest in digital currencies has grown significantly in the world. The global problem has had the greatest impact on the world's first cryptocurrency - bitcoin. The last 12 months have been especially interesting, during which BTC has grown from $5.1 thousand per unit to almost $60 thousand. What is bitcoin, who is its author, how has its price changed, and who invests in bitcoin today - read in the casino reviews UK.
What Is Bitcoin: How It Works, The Idea And Reasons For Creating Cryptocurrency
The idea of creating a virtual currency arose with the beginning of the world's entry into the era of digitalization and the first transfers of funds via the Internet. Digital analogs of cash face "double costs" when paying for goods or services, because they are carried out through banks, which charge a commission for their services.
However, cryptographers wanted to find a solution that would more closely resemble simple physical cash payments: private, untraceable, and independent of third parties transactions over the Internet.
The solution was the cryptocurrency - bitcoin. The idea is simple - there is no centralized system or institution. Users buy currency, or rather, cryptographic keys to their money. The money itself is not stored centrally in a bank, but locally on a personal computer. Transactions are conducted directly between the sender and the recipient through a peer-to-peer network.
However, all transactions are stored anonymously as multiple copies on many computers of different users. During each new transfer, the keys are checked against the list of previous transactions, because each coin in the system has its own unique key. In other words, the use of cryptocurrency is made possible by the history of money movements using asymmetric encryption.
The value of cryptocurrencies is provided by electrical energy and the work of the processor. In fact, the face value of one coin will be equal to a certain amount of time spent on the processor. At the same time, in practice, the real value of cryptocurrency is determined by classical market algorithms - the ratio of exchange offers and demand, which with a slight delay directly affects the value of resources spent to generate the coin.
Bitcoin History: The Mystical Satoshi Nakamoto And The White Paper
The solution to the ideas that already existed was the introduction of the first decentralized virtual currency, or cryptocurrency, - Bitcoin (BTC).
The currency was first mentioned in a report authored by a man with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. At the time, the author appealed to a libertarian audience, emphasizing the lack of any central authority over his technology and the lack of control by financial institutions over the new currency.
Nakamoto criticized central banks for devaluing fiat money by printing more and more of it. Nakamoto promised investors a cryptocurrency that would have a strict limit on the maximum amount. It was the supporters of libertarianism who became the first buyers of bitcoins.
The official birthday of the first cryptocurrency should be considered January 3, 2009. It was on this day that the first block appeared in the future huge web and the first 50 units of BTC appeared. And the general public was allowed to buy cryptocurrency from October 9, 2009.
A few months later, one of the first bitcoin owners, Laszlo Hanec, makes his first online purchase with bitcoin. The investor buys pizza for 10 thousand coins (at that time it was 25 US dollars).
Along with the ability to buy cryptocurrency, Satoshi introduced the White Paper to it.
In fact, the White Paper is an instruction on how to use bitcoin. The document, in fact, sets out all the principles of a cryptographically secure payment system.
This document lays the foundation for the first digital currency that works on the basis of the blockchain.
Interestingly, no one has ever seen Satoshi Nakamoto himself. To this day, it is not known for certain what the author of the whole concept looks like and what his real name is. Some researchers put forward the theory that a woman or even a group of several people may be hiding under the pseudonym Nakamoto.
One of the most truthful versions regarding the identity of the mystical Satoshi Nakamoto is the assumption that the Japanese cryptographer Dorian Nakamoto is behind this pseudonym.
Bitcoin Price: How The Value Of Cryptocurrency Has Changed
The history of the bitcoin price cannot be called smooth, but there were no sharp "jumps" from $1 to $1 million and back. However, for the first eight years, BTC was not a very popular asset for investors and at the start cost $0.0025 per coin, but it was constantly rising in price and developing.
Already in 2017, the first cryptocurrency began to grow rapidly and immediately fell significantly during 2018-2019. With the onset of the pandemic, a new milestone in history has opened for bitcoin. As of early April 2021, the price of BTC is approximately $60 thousand per unit.
Which Celebrities Invest In Bitcoin?
Every year bitcoin is becoming more and more popular, and consequently, its price is growing, and with the price growth, even the biggest skeptics are increasingly paying attention to this type of savings. There is no one better able to convince a football fan or moviegoer to invest in cryptocurrency than his football idol or favorite actor.
1. List of celebrities who have invested in BTC:
2. Ashton Kutcher (actor) - invested in an esports startup UnikoinGold;
3. Hugh Laurie (actor) - "Dr. House" invested in bitcoin in 2015;
4. Mike Tyson (boxer) - owner of a network of bitcoin ATMs;
5. Johnny Depp (actor) - cooperates with the blockchain startup TaTaTu;
6. Lionel Messi (footballer) - ambassador of the crypto company Sirin Labs;
7. Madonna (singer) - the star's charity foundation cooperates with the blockchain startup Ripple;
8. Snoop Dogg (rapper) - in 2013, he offered his fans to buy his new album for cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Forecast: What Will Happen To The First Cryptocurrency In The Future?
Like any currency, bitcoin has its advantages and disadvantages, so we can only talk about the feasibility of investment as of today. As for forecasts, it is impossible to provide any reliable ones.
Some analysts, such as Bloomberg Intelligence senior strategist Mike McGlone, believe that in the near future BTC will become a risk-free currency and will cost $400 thousand. However, according to Bill Gates, one should be careful about investing in cryptocurrency, and Warren Buffett advised everyone to stay away from bitcoin.
It is worth remembering that today more than 18.5 million bitcoins have been issued in the world. The maximum number of units that can exist simultaneously is 21 million. What will happen after that is impossible to predict. According to one version, investors will switch to other cryptocurrencies due to the loss of interest in BTC, which will depreciate. Others believe that after reaching the maximum number of issued bitcoins, their owners, on the contrary, will have an invaluable resource in their hands.
