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Nowadays everyone is talking about Cryptocurrencies and everyone wants to buy it, but do you know the history of Cryptocurrencies? In today's post we will tell you about the history of Cryptocurrencies.
1982: The story of these virtual coins begins in 1982 when David Calum, a Computer Scientist and Cryptographer invented a "blinding algorithm". The algorithm allows for secure, unalterable information exchanges between parties and lays the groundwork for future electronic currency transfers (known as "blinding money').
1989: In 1989, David Calum founded "Digicash". This company used his blinding algorithm to produce units of currency that could be used in the anonymous electronic transfer. However, This company filed for bankruptcy in late 1990 and finally ceased to operate in 2009.
1996: The National Security Agency (NSA) published a document document "How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash" which described a cryptocurrency system.
Also, Douglas Jackson founded E-gold - A digital gold currency in 1996. E-gold was the first digital payment system used by at least 1 million people. At its peak, it had a market capitalisation of more than $2 million. Due to some legal issues, it was shut down by the US government in 2009.
1998: An accomplished software engineer named Wei Dai published a white paper that proposes the idea of B-money - "an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system". However, b-money was never officially launched as a means of exchange.
Later in 1998 Blockchain pioneer, Nick Szabo drafted a proposal for Bit-Gold - a decentralized digital currency. The issue of 'double spending" proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for Szabo who ultimately never made Bit-Gold a reality.
In 2008 The Global financial crises occurred. The financial crisis took its toll on individuals and institutions around the globe, with millions of American being deeply impacted. Financial institutions started to sink, many were absorbed by larger entities. The people started seeking an alternative to traditional banks and fiat money.
In Oct 2008 a mysterious person called Satoshi Nakamoto published a "blockchain whitepaper" which laid the foundation of bitcoin and blockchain technology
2009: Nakamoto released Bitcoin to the public, and group supporters began exchanging and mining the currency.
2010: The first cryptocurrency exchange appeared in the name of bitcoinmarket.com (now closed). Later in 2010 dozens of similar cryptocurrencies including popular alternatives like Litecoin began appearing.
In May 2010 A person named Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to pay 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizza. This was the first recorded purchase of goods through bitcoins. Now, this day is known as Bitcoin Pizza Day (22nd May).
2012: WordPress becomes the first merchant to accept payment in bitcoins. It was later followed by other merchants including Newegg, Expedia and Mi, Microsoft.
2013: World's first bitcoin ATM opened in Vancouver, Canada. Countries around the world started introducing cryptocurrency regulations
Thailand declared trading in cryptocurrency illegal.
German Finance Ministry said it will not accept bitcoin as an official currency but rather as a "unit of accounts" which can be used for private transactions.
People's Bank of China banned financial institution from using bitcoin.
2014: 8,50,000 BTC were stolen from the Mt.Gox Bitcoin Exchange. This is one of the largest theft in BTC in its history and was valued at $460,000,000 at that time.
2015: The Ethereum network was launched.
2019: Coincheck - a major Japanese cryptocurrency exchange lost $534m in the largest cyber heist ever.
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