Fifteen years after the first block of Bitcoin was mined, the original cryptocurrency has battled critics, haters and agitators, and emerged victorious - and is now ranked as one of the top ten most valuable assets in the world.
While many celebrate Oct. 31, 2008 — the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper — as Bitcoin’s original birthday, others take a more technical approach to determining the true age of Bitcoin (BTC). For the latter, Jan. 3 is the actual date Bitcoin materialized as a store of value and transferable currency.
The genesis block, a.k.a. the first Bitcoin block, was mined on Jan. 3, 2009, by its mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto. What followed was years of triumph versus naysayers that included critics, mainstream media, politicians and governments worldwide. On the occasion of Bitcoin’s 15th birthday, we take a bird’s eye view of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bitcoin ATMs were first conceived nearly five years after the first block was mined, with historical data confirming that the first ATM went live in October 2013. The motive was to provide another avenue for people to exchange their local fiat currencies for Bitcoin.
