Cryptocurrencies or decentralized digital currencies have been shaping our world for a long time. Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that exists in the crypto world, and many refer to it as “digital gold”. Cryptocurrencies are immune to government intervention or manipulation and exist solely on the internet through the cooperation of their users. They have a long history, and their appeal has increased over the last several years. There are oven crypto casinos and bookmakers like this sports betting in Australia website which accepts cryptocurrency as a regular payment method. But how did cryptocurrencies originate? Let’s dive into the history of cryptocurrencies then!
Origins Of Cryptocurrencies: How It All Began
The concept of cryptocurrencies is not as new as it may seem. Scientists have been studying the concept of decentralized digital money since the late 1980s.In 1983, the American cryptographer David Chaum invented an anonymous cryptographic electronic money eCash. In 1995, David realized this concept through Digicash. Digicash was an early form of cryptographic electronic payment. It required custom software to withdraw bills from a bank. It also allowed certain encryption keys to be specified before being sent to the recipient. This feature allowed the government, the issuing bank, or any third party to track the digital currency. At the same time, Nick Szabo developed the idea of smart contracts. From 1998 to 2005 Nick Szabo developed a decentralized digital money system called BitGold.
Back in 1998, he wrote that digital currency could be greatly enhanced by cryptographic signatures. They would make each coin unique and prevent problems such as copying coins, double spending, or theft. It is a digital contract between two parties. And it can only be enforced according to the information contained in its code. It is important to remember that Bitcoin was based on previous developments in digital currencies and cryptography. These inventions paved the way for decentralized digital currencies as they exist today. However, only in the early 1990s did digital technologies enable the creation of decentralized digital money.
Satoshi Nakamoto And The Launch Of Bitcoin
The date of Bitcoin’s official creation is the purchase of the domain “bitcoin.org” in August 2008. It was bought by Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym). Satoshi Nakamoto published in 2008 a document about the concept of decentralized digital money transactions that haven’t been approved by third parties. In 2008, a link to a document “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was sent to cryptographers in a mailing list. According to Sakamoto, a purely peer-to-peer (peer-to-peer) version of electronic money helps people do online payments directly, without the involvement of a financial institution.
One year later Nakamoto invented the blockchain database and the Bitcoin protocol. In January 2009, the first version of Bitcoin software was released. The first users of cryptocurrency created bitcoins on their computers. Over time, the complexity increased, so now new digital coins are generated by powerful computers specially designed for this task, ASICs. They are expensive, consume a lot of electricity, and generate a lot of heat. It is unclear who Nakamoto is, whether it is one person or a group of people, as the Bitcoin creator has never revealed his identity. Several people are suspected to be Satoshi, including Szabo. There is still no definitive information about who is behind this pseudonym. There is speculation that it is multiple developers, not one person. Nakamoto is an alias and there is no trail leading to his (or her) identity. In conversation with his fellow developers, Nakamoto has been careful never to reveal any identifying information.
Bitcoin Today
After Bitcoin new cryptocurrencies entered the market. And let’s just compare the value of Bitcoin in 2010 and 2017. In 2010 one Bitcoin cost less than 14 cents. In 2017 the Bitcoin price reached a high of $10,000. Amazing, isn’t it? And today we are in the technological era of Blockchain and Bitcoin.
