Although Bitcoin is not properly understood by most people, it is a hot topic of conversation. In the past 8 years the cryptocurrency’s popularity steadily grew and it is now the widely accepted King Of Crypto. Some just use Bitcoin as investments while others use the cryptocurrency for various daily transactions.
The truth is that most people simply do not use Bitcoin because they lack knowledge about it. There are so many interesting things that can be said about this cryptocurrency. Let’s take a look at some facts that are simply unbelievable and that you surely need to know, whether you are an investor or just a person that wants to learn more.
The Very First Bitcoin Purchase: Pizza
In the crypto community there is a Bitcoin Pizza Day, on the 22nd of May.
When Bitcoins first appeared they did not worth much. You could have bought one Bitcoin for just a few cents. Think about what an investment this would be if you bought a Bitcoin for a few cents and it was now worth thousands of dollars. Regardless of that, the first purchase with Bitcoin was on Bitcoin Pizza Day of 2010 and it was for, you guessed it, PIZZA.
The purchase was 2 Papa John’s Pizzas. The price was 10,000 BTC. At that point in time the value was $41. Now, at the time of writing, 10,000 BTC is worth over $63 million.
Nobody Knows Who Invented Bitcoin
The person that invented Bitcoin was sure smart. This cryptocurrency appeared in 2009 and although numerous speculations about the inventor appeared, nobody knows who he is. All cryptos have a whitepaper. Bitcoin’s whitepaper was open under a pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. Nobody knows who Satoshi is.
The wildest suggestion about the inventor of Bitcoin is that Samsung, Toshiba, Namamichi and Motorola worked together to create Bitcoin. This would explain the name: “Satoshi” would stand for Samsung and Toshiba while “Nakamoto” would stand for Nakamichi and Motorola.
Bitcoin Is Untraceable But It Is Also Traceable
As you make a transaction with Bitcoin, your identity is not revealed. Just the public address is seen. However, in Bitcoin’s blockchain everything is transparent. When a person knows the address you use, they can check and see how much Bitcoin you have and what transactions were done in the past. If someone wants to completely hide one’s identity, the IP needs to be hidden. Basically, it is really hard to trace Bitcoin owners but not actually impossible.
25% Of Bitcoins Have No Owners
Bitcoins have private keys that are necessary to basically prove ownership. When you do not have the keys, you lose your Bitcoin. The most famous case of someone that lost a fortune was James Howells. He started mining Bitcoin in 2010, when value was really low. His private keys were on a hard disk. As he was mining, he ended up holding 7,500 BTC. The problem is that he just threw away his hard disk one day as he was cleaning. This means he lost a lot of money. Right now, those Bitcoins would have been worth around $47 million.
There Is A Limited Supply Of Bitcoin
Bitcoin is practically “mined” by computers. However, at one point in time, computers will no longer be able to mine the cryptocurrency. This is because Bitcoin was coded in a way that a limited supply of 21 million BTC can exist. Over 16 million were already mined. The very last BTC is going to be mined in 2140.
You Can Buy Coffee With Bitcoin
Most people think Bitcoin cannot be used for anything but this is far from the truth. You can buy so many different things with the cryptocurrency. For instance, you can buy coffee from Starbucks and can order food from many sellers. You can even buy your own Tesla car if you have enough Bitcoins.
You Cannot Ban Bitcoin
People are afraid of what they do not understand so it is natural to have so many individuals out there that just want to ban Bitcoin. The hostility appears because the traditional banks are not involved. The problem is that you simply cannot ban Bitcoin. You can just regulate it. If an internet connection exists and you have a Bitcoin wallet, BTC can be owned.
So many countries already tried to ban Bitcoin, including Thailand and Bangladesh. Other countries made BTC a legal tender and work on regulating it, like Russia, Australia and Japan. In other countries like the USA and India, it is not known what the official policy actually is. Obviously, this is just the reality right now. It is expected that most countries will create cryptocurrency regulations since Bitcoin cannot be banned.
Conclusions
Bitcoin is truly fascinating and it is the future, no matter what some may want you to think. Making investments in cryptocurrency is definitely something that serious investors now want to do. There are even Wall Street companies that work hard to be involved in the industry.