Paul Folkerts

Dr. PJ Underwood

ENG112335

25 February 2022

How Cryptocurrency Has Grown

Bitcoin was made in 2008 making it the first cryptocurrency ever made. Even though bitcoin was the first
cryptocurrency to be made, the idea of a digital currency was started in 1989 by a man called David
Chaum who used cryptography to secure transactions but it was too inconvenient and not a good
alternative. When bitcoin was made it was linked to a paper called "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic
Cash System" that was made by Satoshi Nakamoto who also made bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto is
presumed to be a group of people who made bitcoin, there have been many investigations to find out
who is Satoshi Nakamoto but as stated by Wikipedia " The real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto still remains
a matter of dispute." (Wikipedia) The first recorded bitcoin transaction was on January 12, 2009, by a
man called Hal Finney who was a programmer who downloaded the software the day it was released
and got 10 free bitcoins. The first commercial sale using bitcoin was on May 22, 2010, by Laszlo Hanyecz
who was a programmer who bought 2 Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins according to Paulina Likos
and Coryanne Hicks "Fast forward to today, and that amount of Bitcoin has a value of nearly $400
million".(Likos and Hicks) Ever since this first transaction bitcoin and cryptocurrency have grown from a
few cents to 38,624 dollars and tons of cryptocurrencies have been made. But with the growth of
cryptocurrencies and bitcoin, there have been many scams and tricks to get people to invest in initial
coin offerings or ICOs managing to steal millions from people trying to make money from bitcoin. Ever
since the first transaction of bitcoin, there have been millions of trades using bitcoin but because of the
ease of trading cryptocurrency, it has been used in the black market. Because of these trades using
bitcoin in the black market cryptocurrency has been banned in many countries like china according to
Nadia Batey "The People’s Bank of China initiated the most impactful regulations with three separate
actions: In December of 2013, the bank prohibited financial institutions from using Bitcoin, In September
of 2017, it issued a complete ban on the use of Bitcoin, In June of 2021, it implemented a crackdown on
major cryptocurrency miners."(Batey)

Because of bitcoin's success cryptocurrency has blown up from just having bitcoin in 2010 to having
thousands of different cryptocurrencies some worth thousands of dollars. How cryptocurrencies work
according to Kaspersky "Cryptocurrencies run on a distributed public ledger called blockchain, a record
of all transactions updated and held by currency holders." and how its obtained "Units of cryptocurrency
are created through a process called mining, which involves using computer power to solve complicated
mathematical problems that generate coins."(Kaspersky) The top 3 biggest cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin
with a market cap of over 730 billion, Ethereum with a market cap of 327 billion, and Tether with a
market cap of 78 billion. I've already talked a lot about bitcoin some let's take some time to talk about
Ethereum. Ethereum was started in 2013 by Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, Joseph
Lubin, but it was programmed by a programmer named Vitalik Buterin. Right now one Ethereum costs
2,721 dollars making it the second-biggest cryptocurrency. Tether was founded on July 14, 2014, by
Brock Pierce, Craig Sellars, and Reeve Collins. According to Sam Lipscomb "Tether is, in theory, tied to a
fiat currency, which is the U.S. dollar. As a result, Tether is referred to as a “stable coin.” This is different
from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, whose prices fluctuate significantly and whose value is
determined on a more speculative basis." (Lipscomb)

With all the hype and attention that bitcoin, Ethereum, tether, and cryptocurrency, in general, has made
it has shown how the world has changed where anyone can make a currency and have it be successful.
So when you go on to the blockchain now you will know how cryptocurrency has gone from buying
2pizzas from Papa John's to buying a brand new Tesla.

Works Cited:

Wikipedia, "History of bitcoin", 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin#Creation

This shows how each year has changed for Bitcoin. Like how it was made in 2008, how is released in
2009, and how the first transaction went in 2010. It also goes really deep into the investigation of Satoshi
Nakamoto and how his identity is hidden.

Batey, Nadia, "A Brief History of Bitcoin", JamesMoore, 2021, https://www.jmco.com/brief-history-

Nadia reveals more of the drops and downsides like when China banned cryptocurrency and how its
price halved after it. Also some of the big purchases that were made using bitcoin like Silk Road.

Likos, Paulina and Hicks, Coryanne, "The History of Bitcoin, the First Cryptocurrency", reviewed by Tim
Lawson, U.S.News, 2022, https://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/the-history-of-bitcoin

Paulina and Coryanne have more intent with the price of Bitcoin as it grew to show when it hit big prices
like when it hit 100 dollars or 200 dollars. Not only did it focus on price but what partners bitcoin was
going to get.

Kaspersky, "What is cryptocurrency and how does it work?", 2021,

Kaspersky shows the interworks of bitcoin, how it works, and the blockchain. It describes the networks
that Bitcoin uses and how to buy them.

Lipscomb, Sam, "Tether: What Is It, History and How to Buy", Smartasset, 2021,
https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/tether-what-is-it

Lipscomb shows how Tether is helpful for buying Bitcoin and diving into controversy about Tether not
being fully backed so is was not 1:1 it was more like one Tether was about 0.75 dollars. Not only do they
show Tether's history but they also show how to but tether and why you would want to.