How did cryptocurrency rise in popularity? The history, most popular types and where it is heading
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Bitcoin has spawned an entire industry of crypto exchanges, digital wallets and trading apps – and now it has the attention of US presidents and the world’s biggest financial institutions. Friday will mark the 16th birthday of bitcoin, the world’s first ever cryptocurrency.
Created by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto on 3 January 2009, bitcoin has gone from a fringe experiment used by cryptographers, to the world’s seventh most valuable asset with a market cap close to $2 trillion. It has minted thousands of millionaires, dozens of billionaires, and cost others life-changing fortunes. Bitcoin has also inspired more than 10,000 other cryptocurrencies and spawned an entire industry of crypto exchanges, digital wallets and trading apps.
So as bitcoin celebrates its Sweet 16, how did it get here, and where might cryptocurrency be heading?. Bitcoin came as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis, with the first ever block of bitcoins containing a headline from that day’s edition of The Times: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
This blockchain, which publicly tracks bitcoin’s supply, provides an incorruptible record of transactions of the digital currency that no single individual or institution can ever control or alter. It also forms the fundamental basis for all other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin’s decentralised design meant that it was also borderless, requiring only an internet connection to send or spend it anywhere on Earth. While the idea was to democratise finance, its semi-anonymous nature meant that many of the early adopters were people using it to buy and sell drugs and other nefarious items on the dark web.
