Software developers, cryptographers, and libertarians were entered into data mining and currency trading in the early days of Bitcoin. It is adorned by the programmers because of its potential to revolutionize the world and the technical challenges it posed.
It was loved by libertarians as it was a snub to authority. It was a unique kind of money that no government-issued, tracked, or controlled.
In October of 2009, the first exchange rate for Bitcoin was published. It was then claimed that 1,309 Bitcoins were worth exactly $1.
Several people got rich in the early days of Bitcoin, like a kid named Erik Finman who made a bet with his parents and dropped out of high school after becoming a millionaire.
How did Bitcoin gain popularity?
By just hearing a couple of get-rich-quick stories does not explain the determination that it took or the strangeness of the story. In the year 2010, after forwarding a request from the federal government banks, financial institutions such as Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal all cutoff WikiLeaks from receiving any traditional forms of funding.
WikiLeaks
Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin mentioned in one of his last emails before disappearing, saying, “It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has tried to pinch the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
WikiLeaks became a big reason to bring worldwide attention to the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin and people beyond developers and Libertarians began investing. After this 2011, Ross Ulbricht, popular as the Dread Pirate Roberts, estimated that if you combined the anonymity of Bitcoin with the dark web you could create the world’s largest open drug market.
The Silk Road
The Silk Road was born after a few years. Although it was not the center of attention for media as well as for the creators and investors of Bitcoin. But surprisingly it did drive up the value, it also opened Bitcoin up to increased scrutiny.
By the time the federal government began weighing in and New York State imposed some of the heaviest regulations in the country on the new industry and business popping up around bitcoinevolution.org. Another big reason was the introduction of new regulation and the collapse of one of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, 2013 the value of Bitcoin plunged.
For these irregularities, Ross Ulbricht is now serving a life sentence in prison and Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is locked inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London avoiding extradition charges. Although Assange is thankful to the federal government for forcing them to become early adopters of the technology.
What are the risks associated with Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is still functional in the wild west in many ways. You will get no financial protections when investing in Bitcoin as it offers very little regulation or oversight. The CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Morgan, alleged Bitcoin as fraud that would eventually blow up.
This is right as it is originating from the guy whose company had to agree to pay the federal government $13 billion to settle investigations into its business practices about mortgage-backed securities.
Bitcoin has grown to a larger extent since then. There are different controversies over how Bitcoin should be used or regulated, which is one of the main reasons there’s so much volatility with the currency.
China has now banned investments in Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) which resulted in sliding down the value of many currencies. Several good alternatives to Bitcoin are available, the most respected is Ethereum and Litecoin.
Any kind of new medium, especially one with a volatile nature, can fail. The market may crash at any time for any number of reasons. The people looking to seriously invest in any cryptocurrency, first look at the people behind it.
Due to the popularity of Bitcoin, there are a lot of other cryptocurrencies on the market today — over a 100 with a value of $100 per share or more. With that has come to a lot of fraud.
Another major issue in the Bitcoin trade is og hackers
They are the thieves who cleverly break into bank accounts, customer lists, and credit reporting companies. From Target to Equifax, nothing seems entirely safe escaped from the hits of hackers. Bitcoin wallets are also an easy target for these hackers. As we know that Bitcoins could not be traced, so if they’re stolen, it’s nearly impossible to get that money back.
What’s next for Bitcoin?
The holding up system of Bitcoin is so unique and revolutionary that most people can barely comprehend it, Even the process to understand its use is quite difficult to comprehend. The federal government is looking at it as a way to enhance data security and encryption.