U.Today - Sixteen years ago, on Nov. 17, 2008, a pivotal moment in the history of Bitcoin was marked. According to Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo, this date marks the release of the oldest known version of the Bitcoin code.
Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, had already outlined the cryptocurrency's groundbreaking concept in its whitepaper a month earlier. However, this release of the original Bitcoin code marked the beginning of its evolution from a mere idea to a functional reality.
Back then, Bitcoin was worth nothing. There was no market, no miners and certainly no value attached to the lines of code Nakamoto shared. Fast forward to today, and Bitcoin's value has skyrocketed, surpassing the $90,000 mark.
Satoshi's vision was to create a decentralized digital currency that could operate without the need for a central authority. This vision was detailed in the Bitcoin white paper, published on Oct. 31, 2008.
Bitcoin was launched on Jan. 9, 2009, with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the first genesis block.
Bitcoin faces rapid growth
From the time of its genesis, Bitcoin has progressed, gradually increasing adoption. The first-ever real-world transaction made with Bitcoin famously involved the purchase of two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010.Fast forward to today, and Bitcoin has reached thousands of dollars, setting all-time highs of $93,495 on Nov. 13.
At the time of writing, BTC was up 0.62% in the last 24 hours to $91,785. Bitcoin recovered from its largest two-day drop since Nov. 5, declining in Saturday and Sunday trading session before rising to intraday highs of $92,234 early Monday morning.
Investors are lowering their expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate reduction in an otherwise strong U.S. economy, which might pose a challenge for cryptocurrencies because liquidity conditions might influence speculative demand for digital assets.