From 2008, the Bitcoin has been affected by a wide range of factors that have made it one of the most volatile currencies in the world. However, despite the volatility, more than 100.000 Bitcoin transactions take place each day, and the volume continues to grow due to the “permissionless innovation” envisioned by Bitcoin's underlying technology, the blockchain.
As the blockchain matures, the Bitcoin will look more and more like traditional financial services, with operations such as Circle, Coinbase and BITNET. But how did they all start, and where does the next step go? Below, we will see a brief overview of the major milestones in the short story of cryptocurrency to look at where it might be headed in the future.
August 2008
Three people, Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry filed an application for encryption patents. All three of these people deny that they have a connection with Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged creator of Vitcoin. These three also registered the domain Vitcoin.org in the same month, by the anonymousspeech.com company - which allows anonymous market domains.
October 2008
Despite all this, Satoshi Nakamoto is releasing one white paper, αποκαλύπτοντας την ιδέα του για μια καθαρά peer-to-peer version ηλεκτρονικού χρήματος, πρώτη στον κόσμο. Στο όραμά του, καταφέρνει να λύσει το πρόβλημα των χρημάτων που αντιγράφεται, παρέχοντας ένα ζωτικό θεμέλιο για να αναπτυχθεί το Βitcoin νόμιμα.
January 2009
The first block, named 'Genesis' starts by allowing the initial 'mining' of Bitcoins. Later that month, the first transaction takes place between Satoshi and Hal Finney, developer and crypto activist.
October 2009
Bitcoin accepts an equivalent value in traditional currencies. New Liberty Standard sets the value of Bitcoin to $ 1 = 1.309 BTC. The equation was calculated to include the cost of electricity for the computer that created the first Vitcoins.
May 2010
A developer living in Florida named Laslo Hanyecz sends 10.000BTC to a volunteer in England, who spent about $25 to order Hanyecz a pizza from Papa John's. Today this pizza is valued at £1.961.034 and is now a major milestone in Bitcoin history.
August 2010
Hacked Bitcoin. A vulnerability has been discovered in the way the system verifies the value of Bitcoin. This discovery led to the creation of 184 billion Bitcoins. The value of the currency fell sharply.
October 2010
Bitcoin pulls the spotlight. Following hacking in August - and the subsequent detection of other vulnerabilities in the blockchain in September - an intergovernmental group is publishing a report on money laundering using new payment methods. As Bitcoin said, it could help finance terrorist groups.
January 2011
Silk Road, an illicit drug market and beyond, opens its doors to the public. It uses Vitcoin as a non-detectable way of selling drugs.
February 2011
Vitcoin reaches US dollar exchange rate for the first time. By June each Bitcoin deserves 31 dollars, which gives the currency a capitalization of 206 million dollars.
June 2013
The first big one theft. Ο ιδρυτής του Βitcoin Forum, allinvain αναφέρει ότι εξαφανίστηκαν 25.000 BTC από το ψηφιακό του wallet. Το ποσό είχε ισοδύναμο αξίας 375.000 δολαρίων. Τον ίδιο μήνα, μια σημαντική παραβίαση ασφαλείας ρίχνει την αξία του νομίσματος από $ 17.51 στα $ 0,01 ανά Βitcoin.
2013 Map
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) publishes some of the world's first regulations in the form of a report to guide the management, exchange of the currency. This marked the beginning of an ongoing debate on the best way to regulate Vitcoin.
2013 Map
The capitalization of the Bitcoin market reached $ 1 billion.
August 2013
Federal Judge Mazzant claims that: "It is clear that Bitcoin can be used as money" and that "It can be used to purchase goods or services" in a case against Trendon Shavers, the so-called 'Bernie Madoff of bitcoin.' Bloomberg begins testing Bitcoin with its terminal. Despite the fact that alternative tickers exist, Bloomberg's endorsement gives Bitcoin greater institutional legitimacy.
November 2013
Bitcoin goes up to $ 700.
December 2013
China's central bank forbids financial institutions to trade with Bitcoin. Today, China remains the largest trading market with Bitcoin, with 80% of Bitcoin global trading coming from China.
January 2014
Elliptic launches the world's first secured Bitcoin storage service for institutional customers. All deposits are fully insured.
Overstock.com becomes the first major online retailer to embrace and accept Bitcoin payments in the USA.
February, 2014
HMRC classifies Bitcoin as an asset or private equity, which means that no VAT will be charged for the extraction or exchange of Bitcoin.
June 2014
The US government has auctioned more than 29.000 bitcoins seized by Silk Road, the illicit electronic market. The closure and auction of Silk Road digital coins helped Bitcoin gain legitimacy as Bitcoin proved not to be the easy way for online criminals to avoid the rule of law.
From this point on, Bitcoin can no longer be considered as a currency used by criminals. Using the Bitcoin blockchain means that users can often be identified.
July 2014
The 'Bit Licence' is starting to become a reality as the New York State Department of Financial Services releases the first draft of the agency's proposed rules for regulating virtual currencies. The European Banking Authority also publishes its opinion on “virtual currencies” and recommends that EU legislators legislate the declaration of virtual currency exchanges as mandatory for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing requirements.
EBA's report is important as it acts as a catalyst to start Bitcoin as a status quo in the financial trend, highlighting the fact that virtual currencies require a regulatory approach and international coordination to achieve a successful regulatory regime.
August of 2014
Finance Minister George Osborne buys £ 20 to Vitcoin.
October 2014
TeraExchange announces that the first Vitcoin derivative transaction took place in an organized exchange, adding a new means of relying on credibility and institutional trust for Vitcoin across the Bitcoin community.
December 2014
Microsoft is starting to accept payments to Vitcoin.
January 2015
The New York Stock Exchange is the lowest bidder to invest in 75 million dollars of Coinbase. The NYSE aims to capitalize on the new asset class, bringing transparency, security and trust to Vitcoin.
Future forecasts
There are several ways that Vitcoin could develop. Everyone shows a legitimate, wide adoption by large institutions and businesses but with stricter regulation. Recently, BitLicense in New York became the first special regulatory regime for the digital coin in the world. It has gone through two rounds of consultation and is expected to enter into force in a couple of weeks.
The European Central Bank and the European Bank Authority have released two detailed reports on digital currencies and are proposing to regulate the industry from the EU to further fluctuations in control prices. The Winklevoss brothers, are on the verge of starting their own exchange for Vitcoins.
Vitcoin's trip to the financial trend has already begun, with the HM Treasury report. The report mentions ways to combat money laundering, consumer protection and technical standardization for legitimate digital businesses in the UK. It encourages traditional economic services to deal more with digital businesses and accelerate the integration of blockchain technology within financial services.
Article by Nathan Jessop, analyst at Elliptic, a full Vitcoin service for investment funds and trading houses.
The article was published in TNW.
