Bitcoin Milestone: The Blockchain Turns Five Today

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Happy 5th Birthday to the Bitcoin Blockchain!

Five years ago today, the first 50 Bitcoin were issued in the first block of the Blockchain, also called the Genesis Block.

The 50 BTC reward went to address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, owned by Satoshi Nakamoto. Since that first block, all other bitcoins have been issued to miners who process transactions, on average about every 10 minutes.

Genesis Block Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a global digital currency managed by a peer-to-peer, decentralized network of computers. There is no central bank or governing body that controls the currency. Instead, Bitcoin issuance and trading are governed by an open-source algorithm initially presented in a 2008 whitepaper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto. After the initial system was launched, the open-source code was handed over to a non-profit organization called the Bitcoin Foundation.

As of December 2013 there are over 12 million bitcoins in circulation out of a total expected 21 million that will be issued by the year 2140. Similar to a precious metal commodity, Bitcoins are added to the economy through a process called “mining.” Mining is a computational process that effectively issues new bitcoins to the network in a predictable fashion.

All Bitcoin transactions are recorded on a decentralized public ledger called the Blockchain. Every miner in the network stores a copy of this ledger. Approximately every 10 minutes, new bitcoins are added to the overall pool when a new block is mined and added to the Blockchain. The miner receives a reward (currently 25 Bitcoin) for discovering a block.

After 5 years of transactions, Bitcoin is now has a $10 billion market capitalization. Happy birthday Blockchain!

 

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2 Responses to Bitcoin Milestone: The Blockchain Turns Five Today

  1. […] Bitcoin Milestone: The Blockchain Turns Five Today […]

  2. […] Bitcoin is now 5 years old, it’s really ground zero for the cryptocurrency and the people in this booth are helping to […]

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