A Brief History of CryptocurrencyThe idea of creating a money no government can mess with dates back to the 1990s. Various enthusiasts had found the possibility intriguing but had no way of implementing it in the early days of the Internet and with no blockchain in sight. A handful of tech freaks continued to work in that direction as time went by — to no effect.
The history of crypto money begins on October 31, 2008, when somebody named Satoshi Nakamoto posted a note outlining a cryptocurrency he dubbed Bitcoin. Nakamoto’s identity remains enshrined in mystery to this day, with many puzzling over whether it stands for an individual or a team of developers. Reports claiming with varying credibility to have traced Satoshi down abound, but none show incontrovertible evidence.
The difference of opinion has divided people into two camps: those looking for a single person and those arguing that no individual could singlehandedly create a technology that complex, meaning there has to be a whole group of software engineers hiding behind the Nakamoto alias. The true identity of Bitcoin’s creator might eventually reveal itself to the world. Anyhow, the cryptic nature of cryptocurrency has up until now played into its hands.
January 3, 2009 — the day Bitcoin’s blockchain spawned the first 50 BTC chain — marks another milestone in crypto’s history. Crypto mining required no hardware farms back in the day. The tiny amount of power it took to generate Bitcoin was what defined its first-ever exchange rate, BTC 1309 per dollar. By August 2010, Bitcoin’s price had reached a “whopping” USD 0.08. The first-ever (and now legendary) deal with Bitcoin as money, in which two boxes of pizza changed hands for BTC 10,000, occurred at about the same time, and the first Bitcoin-based exchange went into operation soon after. Also known as Mt. Gox, the crypto exchange was shut down in 2014 after its popularity peaked.
Crypto money started to draw the interest of enthusiasts around the globe as altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) and Lightcoin (LTC) emerged, each with their pros and cons. Several thousand altcoins have appeared to date, with more on the way as the ICO boom goes on.
Much has been achieved in recent years in terms of cryptocurrency evolution as new exchanges and cryptocurrencies were launched, but crypto money is still coming of age. Authorities worldwide still give it the cold shoulder, with numerous legal issues waiting to be resolved. But first and foremost, cryptocurrency is by and large still the domain of enthusiasts. Regular people still find it hard to use, but we hope the VISO project will help deal with the problem by making crypto money a commonplace way to pay for goods and services.
Without a doubt, cryptocurrency is going to define the future of mankind, and we take pride in our ability to bring that future a bit closer.
https://medium.com/@viso/a-brief-history-of-cryptocurrency-727754d55093
