The first successful launch of a cryptocurrency was Bitcoin. In October, 2008, an anonymous figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper. You can read that whitepaper here, https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper.

One of the best statements Satoshi has used to describe the reason for Bitcoin is “The root problem with conventional currencies is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust."

Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity still remains a mystery today and could be a man, woman, or group of people. There is plenty of speculation as to who that could be. You may hear the term Satoshi or Sats used to describe the smallest unit of account in Bitcoin, which is 0.00000001 BTC.

In January, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block of Bitcoin. Embedded in the coinbase of this block was the text: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” Many feel the creation of Bitcoin was in response to the financial crisis of 2008 and to highlight all the flaws in current financial systems around the globe. Satoshi began to solicit others to run the network as well. The first known person to help with this is Hal Finney who received the first Bitcoin transaction and helped to contribute to Bitcoin development in the early stages. Some people believe that Hal Finney is a candidate to potentially be Satoshi Nakamoto, but it is near impossible to confirm as Hal Finney passed away in 2014 after a battle with ALS.

Bitcoin started with no value, but as the network grew and early adopters helped push the movement forward and Bitcoin began to grow in value and in network size. Bitcoin creates digital scarcity with only a total of 21 million Bitcoins that will ever be created. The Bitcoin code releases new Bitcoin on every block that is created (roughly every 10 minutes). Initially it was 50 Bitcoin per block, but every 4 years that is cut in half in an event called the halving. As of this time, 6.25 Bitcoin are released every block and that will be cut in half again in 2024.

Today, Bitcoin is the most secure network in the world. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies that have been created since Bitcoin. Bitcoin has evolved into a current use case where it is used by many as a store of value and a hedge against the inflation of fiat currency. There are many places that accept Bitcoin as payment but we still have a ways to go. All other cryptocurrencies created since Bitcoin, which are called Altcoins (any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin), have been created with variations to Bitcoin with intentions of other uses or improvements.

What are Cryptocurrencies?