Bitcoin: Facts about the Popular Cryptocurrency You Need to Know
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Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that you can sell and buy and it typically operates independently without the interference of an intermediary like the bank.
Even though Bitcoin, the first of its kind, was created in 2009, it didn’t become popular until the late 2010s. As popular as it seems, this type of cryptocurrency has many amazing facts that might change your view about it. Below are five of them:
Most Valuable Cryptocurrency to Ever Exist
With the popularity of cryptocurrency, more and more coins are being created but the first still remains the best. Being the first crypto to ever exist, Bitcoin traded 1BTC to $0.0025 as of May 2010 but that is ridiculous compared to its value in recent times. For example, 1BTC is equivalent to $63,283.02 as of 25 October 2021 and this amount can buy you a nice car.
“bitcoin” Is Different from Bitcoin
Though carelessly used, “bitcoin” in the lower case is quite different from “Bitcoin” in the upper case. The former is the cryptocurrency used to perform the transactions. For example, “I used one bitcoin to buy a house”. However, the latter is used to store information regarding these transactions, just like a proper noun. For example, “the world first cryptocurrency is Bitcoin”.
Bitcoin Is Limited
Unlike a regular currency like the dollar, new bitcoins cannot be produced after the last one is mined. The total amount of bitcoins available globally is 21 million, with 18.854m currently in circulation as of 25 October 2021. But no worries as there are enough bitcoins to mine, we might not even live to see the last of it. This is due to the fact the last bitcoin is estimated to be mined in the year 2140.
Tracing Bitcoin Transaction Is not Impossible but Hard
There is a popular belief that Bitcoin transactions cannot be traced. This is due to the independent and transparent nature of Bitcoin which makes it difficult to trace a user because transactions made with it are recorded on a public ledger known as the blockchain. However, information such as the amount, time, wallets that send and receive money is stored on this ledger. This means that Bitcoin does not make payments anonymous, but it may be difficult to trace the identity of the person making a transaction.
FBI Owns One of the Largest Bitcoin Wallets
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down a black market where Bitcoin was often used to make transactions. This happened in 2014 when the black market, Silk Road, leveraged the belief that Bitcoin is an independent entity and anyone could do as they please. The FBI subsequently acquired a total of 1.5% Bitcoin circulating the market and this is considered a huge amount for a body to own.
Which of these facts do you find the most amusing and, which did you expect to feature but didn’t? Let me know what you think by leaving your thoughts in the comment section!
