Kriptoks

Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralized cryptocurrency that was first described in a 2008 whitepaper by a person or group of people using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. It was launched in January 2009 and is a peer-to-peer online currency, meaning that all transactions happen directly between equal, independent network participants without the need for any intermediary. Bitcoin was created to allow for online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

Before Bitcoin, there were other concepts for a similar type of decentralized electronic currency, but Bitcoin was the first to actually be put into use. The true identity of the person or organization behind the Satoshi Nakamoto alias is still unknown. On October 31, 2008, Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper, which described how a peer-to-peer online currency could be implemented using a decentralized ledger of transactions secured by cryptographic algorithms, a system that would later be known as the blockchain. Just two months later, on January 3, 2009, Nakamoto mined the first block on the Bitcoin network, known as the genesis block, launching the world's first cryptocurrency.

In its early days, most Bitcoins were obtained through mining, which only required moderately powerful devices and mining software. The first known commercial transaction involving Bitcoin took place on May 22, 2010, when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. Today, those pizzas would be worth over $478 million at current Bitcoin prices. This event is now known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day." In July 2010, Bitcoin began trading for the first time, with prices ranging from $0.0008 to $0.08.

While Nakamoto was the original inventor of Bitcoin and the author of its first implementation, he handed over the network alert key and control of the code repository to Gavin Andresen, who later became the lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation. Since then, a large number of people have contributed to improving the cryptocurrency's software by patching vulnerabilities and adding new features. The Bitcoin source code repository on GitHub lists over 750 contributors, including Wladimir J. van der Laan, Marco Falke, Pieter Wuille, Gavin Andresen, and Jonas Schnelli.

One of the unique aspects of Bitcoin is that it was the first cryptocurrency to appear on the market. It has created a global community and given rise to an entirely new industry of enthusiasts who create, invest in, trade, and use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in their everyday lives. The entire cryptocurrency market, which is now worth over $2 trillion, is based on the concept introduced by Bitcoin: money that can be sent and received by anyone, anywhere in the world, without relying on trusted intermediaries like banks and financial services companies.

Despite losing its dominant position, Bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization that surpassed $1 trillion in 2021 after reaching an all-time high price of $64,863.10 on April 14.