Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was created in 2009. Although slow to gain popularity at first, Bitcoin is now owned by over 219 million people worldwide and the price of one Bitcoin has skyrocketed to over $65,000 per Bitcoin.
A lot of people know the term “Bitcoin” however there are some lesser-known facts about the digital currency that we’ll explore in this article.
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1. Mysterious Founder
Bitcoin was launched on January 3, 2009, but to this day, nobody knows who founded the first digital currency. Bitcoin was created by either an individual or a group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
Besides a name, we know that Satoshi published a white paper about cryptocurrency and how to use it.
In addition, it’s rumored that the person or group, Satoshi, owns about one million Bitcoins. Despite a lot of research and digging, that’s about all we know of Bitcoin’s mysterious founder.
2. It’s Good For More Than Just Investing
When most people start to research and explore crypto and Bitcoin, it’s for investment. However, Bitcoin owners quickly learn that there’s more they can do with their BTC than simply invest it.
They can go shopping. A number of high-end luxury stores like Gucci, Balenciaga, and Ralph Lauren now accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
So, if you happen to own Bitcoin and are looking to buy a new Gucci handbag or a new Ralph Lauren suite, you can make your big buy using the Bitcoin you’ve got saved.
Additionally, you can bet online with your Bitcoin. Online betting has been growing in popularity, and crypto casinos now allow players to buy in, wager, and withdraw funds using crypto like Bitcoin online.
According to Kane Pepi from Techopedia, one of the biggest pros of betting online with Bitcoin is that it offers players instant withdrawals. This means that players are able to receive their winnings nearly instantly.
While most Bitcoin holders are interested in investment, some prefer to spend a portion of their digital currency on goods, like clothes, or experience, like online betting.
For those looking to spend their BTC, the number of businesses accepting Bitcoin is growing steadily by the day.
3. There’s A Limited Supply of BTC
Bitcoin has a limited supply of just 21 million coins. In comparison, traditional fiat currency has no limit, more fiat currency can be printed by central banks when and as needed.
Bitcoin’s limited supply means that it’s more valuable because there’s only so much of it. In addition, the coin should retain its value over time because of the limited supply as well.
4. There Are A Lot Of Lost Coins
Bitcoin is extremely secure, so only the owner of the digital currency knows the private key to access their tokens.
This means that if someone owns Bitcoin (or any crypto for that matter) and forgets their private key to access their crypto tokens, nobody else can help them and they’re stuck with inaccessible, or lost, cryptocurrency tokens.
To date, it’s estimated that nearly 30% of all Bitcoin is “lost”. That means approximately 6 million Bitcoin tokens, a value of $554 billion, are lost or inaccessible due to owners forgetting their private keys or possibly losing the device that they used to access their coins.
5. BTC First Used To Buy Pizza
After crypto was launched in January 2009, it took a little while for things to catch on. It was not until May of 2010 that someone made a purchase for real work goods using Bitcoin.
Laszlo Hanyecz made the first ever recorded purchase using Bitcoin by buying 2 pizzas from Papa John’s for the price of 10,000 Bitcoins.
Before this purchase was completed, Bitcoin was simply a digital experiment. But after Laszlo purchased his pizzas, Bitcoin became a true medium of exchange.
The value of those two pizzas, if purchased for 10,000 Bitcoin today would be approximately $65 million. That’s some pricey pizza!
6. Bitcoin Uses A Lot Of Energy
Some people are concerned about the amount of energy that Bitcoin uses and the negative effects it may have on the environment and our planet.
Bitcoin uses up mass amounts of power and energy from the process of mining. Mining is when new Bitcoins are created and when transactions are verified.
This whole process takes up so much energy that it’s been reported that Bitcoin creates as much CO2 as the country of Greece. That’s about 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 annually.
Because of this, some crypto miners and others are looking to natural energy sources to support mining efforts, hoping to lessen the impact on the environment moving forward.
7. Bitcoin Gets Halved
About every four years, Bitcoin is pre-programmed to undergo a halving event. Halving reduces the rate at which new BTC are created, by half.
A halving event is coming up in 2024 and is scheduled to take place in April. Halvings have been taking place for years, let’s review the past halvings and how they’ve impacted BTC:
- Halving 1: Took place in 2012. The price of BTC at the time of the halving was $13, and the following year’s peak was $1,152. This halving reduced the block reward from 50 to 25 BTC.
- Halving 2: In 2016, the second halving further reduced the block from 25 to 12.5 BTC. The value of BTC at the time of the halving was $664 and the following year’s peak was $17,760.
- Halving 3: The third halving in 2020 further reduced the block from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC. The value of BTC at the time of the halving was $9,734 and the following year it peaked at just over $67,000.
8. It’s Pseudonymous
Bitcoin is not anonymous, but it is pseudonymous. This means that each user gets to choose a pseudonym or code of sorts, to use as their address to send and receive Bitcoin.
Because all transactions are recorded on a public ledger, other users cannot see the Bitcoin owner’s personal details like their name, but they can see their pseudonym or alias when transacting online.
This is one reason why, as mentioned earlier, it’s popular for online gambling, as this anonymity allows players to enjoy games safely in places where gambling is outlawed or restricted.
If a BTC owner’s pseudonym was ever revealed publicly, then their online activity with Bitcoin would also be revealed.
In the original white paper by Bitcoin’s mysterious founder or founders, they actually suggested that if a BTC user wants to remain more anonymous they should use different addresses (or pseudonyms) for each transaction, so as not to leave a long trail of transactions.
