Bitcoin has been around since 2008 and will enjoy its 10th birthday this 2018. The majority of those years were spent in relative obscurity with only a handful of dedicated members of the development community using it.
Facts suggest that Bitcoin it was created out of the financial recession in 2008 in direct response to the crisis caused by banks manipulating the debt markets for their own gain. Bitcoin effectively takes the ability of manipulating markets away from the financial elite and was its creator’s way of preventing a similar catastrophe.
Bitcoin remained out of the mainstream spotlight for years and slowly became more and more widely adopted by the internet as whole: sports betting and gambling sites were among the first to introduce it, creating unique games like Bitcoin poker and provably fair casino games. By 2014, Bitcoin began to gain some mainstream attention. However, due to a hack of the popular exchange MT.Gov, the value quickly dissipated and Bitcoin was forced back into the shadows.
This all changed in 2017, when Bitcoin, for the first time, began to be mass-adopted by people around the globe. Its value skyrocketed and the general population began to take a closer look at the technology that drives it. Bitcoin became the topic of debate and news cycles. It was almost like a floodgate had been opened and Bitcoin was the water the masses thirsted for.
It also became the target of attacks on its value by the same financial elite it was created to protect against. Tuning into news and business programming, the word “bubble” was used synonymously with the technology. But for the first time in what seems like forever, the masses didn’t listen to the masters and mass adoption led to Bitcoin surging in value by over 2000% during an 11-month period.
For many people, Bitcoin remains a rather unknown and misunderstood technology. Though many have adopted it and begun to use it, others remain unconvinced of its potential. Nonetheless, the far future will reveal how much Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies are here to stay and will change the monetary system as we know it.
This infographic brought to you by BitcoinPlay.
