Bitcoin History & Future: Will Bitcoin Hit USD 1 Million?
An alternate reality of fiat in our digital realm!!!
Time. Math. Cryptography. Money. It is more than a linear path — a chain of endless possibilities. A single change in hash can create or change infinite blocks. You are your keeper. You can become the guide of this vast cryptographic ecosystem. Follow the keys and wonder… What if?
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
The great financial crisis was toppling every economy that existed on the planet Earth. The money bubble no longer existed. Fear, doubt, uncertainty (FUD) surrounded fiat money that made people think if their earnings are safe with the banks anymore.
From big corporations to ‘non-existent’ people of the world, the 2008 financial crisis left no one untouched except the Big Shorts.
When everything was falling apart, a tiny ray of hope in a concerned commoner grew stronger than ever to build a system that was not controlled by these big whales. And thus, Satoshi Nakamoto was born.
The name Satoshi is generally associated with males in the Japanese region and has meanings like intelligent, wise, and clear. Today, we know Satoshi just as this and more (a currency unit and an anonymous creator who made traditional big whales shiver).
Satoshi Nakamoto — the visionary and creator of Bitcoin — is believed to be a commoner (can be a group or a person) because no one has a clear idea, only theories.
Back to the story — in the middle of the financial crisis, Satoshi wanted a currency that was peer to peer, not centralised, open ledger, and had a legitimate backing to save itself from similar fallouts. On one fine morning of 31 October 2008, it birthed Bitcoin.
Bitcoin: An Embryo
We had good internet connectivity back in 2008–09 although not affordable or available to all. With exemplary cryptography, math, and money skills, Satoshi laid the foundation for Bitcoin.
When the need to get other people in was felt, they were introduced to the system. Then entered Harold Thomas Finney II (aka Hal Finney) — American developer and cypherpunk.
He was the only person to have elongated conversations with Satoshi since the beginning, well, mostly through emails and codes (could be more but who knows *scoffs*).
During the financial crisis, it was realized that creating more money or printing out of thin air only contributes to more inflation. It was a fact that commoners didn’t understand. But this time, they not only knew this but also the fact that Dollars or any other fiat is not backed by anything but trust.
It’s like having an unlimited supply of paper money because we ‘trust’ central institutes and then it never being enough to fulfil our needs because ‘inflation’. The loop had only started and Satoshi could sense it during the economic fallout.
So what did we need — a decentralized currency that was not controlled by one person or corporation and definitely wasn’t created out of thin air. And boy, did we get it?
“Bitcoin — A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”
While Satoshi wrote the whitepaper for Bitcoin as a P2P and decentralized electronic cash system, Hal Finney created its Proof of Work (PoW) system. Mind you, Hal Finney had already created a reusable PoW system back in 2004 when cryptography existed only within a tiny community of developers and enthusiasts.
Like Satoshi, Hal Finney was also a visionary and supporter of everything that Bitcoin stood for and I believe ’twas the only reason they could create such a beautiful thing.
“When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin.” — Hal Finney
They exchanged too many emails, tested different phases of creation and implementation, and shared ideas needed to better Bitcoin at every step, including potential scaling.
Many months, email exchanges, and codes later — Bitcoin was finally introduced to the world.
Satoshi sent this transaction with a text message “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
There it is — Genesis Block. If you know coding, you can read the entire script here. If you can’t (like me), read this.
Bitcoin: To Life
Satoshi Nakamoto had mined 50 Bitcoins (BTC) initially, created a Genesis block (or Block 0), and presented a significant reason for creating and adopting Bitcoin. Those 50 BTC were encoded such that they were locked forever in the genesis block.
Hal Finney and Satoshi together developed Bitcoin as we know it today. There were other people as well who joined in the later stages.
Though Satoshi and Hal could easily mine Bitcoins with CPU as it was only an infant, it is not the case today. Complexity grew over time as the number of miners (nodes) increased. Today, they use ASICs to solve cryptographic puzzles to earn block rewards.
If you look at the screenshot below, you will learn that Satoshi referred to miners as nodes that solved cryptographic puzzles for block rewards (BTC + transaction fee).
The rewards in smaller units are called Sats (named after the creator himself — not that he/she/they did it). What cents are to a dollar or paise to rupee, Sats holds the same basics for 1 Bitcoin.
There’s still so much to read and learn from the early developments of Bitcoin that laid the foundation for a fully P2P e-Cash system without involving any financial institutions.
You can read most of the conversations of the initial years here in this thread.
During the initial months, it was only obtained by miners and hardly had transactions as not many knew about it. But everything was about change.
May 22, 2010
Miners and Bitcoin community members had multiple holdings of Bitcoin. They would reward each other with BTC on various accounts like good comments or information but wasn’t necessarily used for making transactions.
An American developer and miner named Laszlo Hanyecz put out the word that he was willing to 10,000 BTC in exchange for 2 pizzas if anyone was interested. The word was out on the streets and shortly he would get a reply from Jeremy Jercos Sturdivant, an early Bitcoin user.
On May 22, the deal was made and Laszlo would receive two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC. The price of this insane number of BTC was merely the US $41 back in 2010. This transaction had been written in history and thus began the rise of Bitcoin outside the community.
2010–11 also marked the last online presence of Satoshi Nakamoto (pseudonym used since BTC inception). Satoshi was never known to the community as a person even before but had conversed with many people over two years.
By 2011, Bitcoin had decent monetary value and community. However, 2013 was the defining year that caught the international eye.
Silk Road: A Short Pass
The online marketplace called Silk Road was booming on the dark web. Criminals would launder everything illegal both online and offline. Since the federal agencies were keeping an eye on their activities and cash, they would look for ways to get around it. They found Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was a fairly new digital currency that was away from the federal eye, making it perfect for the Silk Road marketplace to pay for operations and thrive.
Everything was going smoothly for Bitcoin and Silk Road until October 2013 when the FBI shut down the website seizing Bitcoins worth million dollars.
It became the news, caught the international eye and interest of people from all sectors of society. Despite being linked to the online marketplace Silk Road, Bitcoin continued thriving. People became aware of the high tech used in its creation, leading to an increased interest from all fronts.
Bitcoin: Road to 21 Million
The rise of this digital currency was such that even the National Credit Union Administration (USA) reported it and thus began its expanse. By the time NCUA reported in 2017, it had already reached US $7500 in value.
It wrote, “Blockchain transactions act as records in a ledger that appears in chronological order just like a bank statement. Each block becomes progressively more difficult to mine over time, capping the number of Bitcoins in circulation to around 21 million units. This makes the currency’s value based on scarcity rather than the financial backing of an issuer. The ease of use and anonymity are also factors in its current value.”
Since then, Bitcoin touched All-Time High in December 2017 at US $20,000 and then created a new record in 2021 by crossing US $68,000 in value. Ain’t it interesting?
Well, it is not just the price that is the most intriguing thing about Bitcoin — it’s the math, scarcity, decentralisation, blockchain, and every other application. It even paved way for thousands of other cryptocurrencies and blockchains like Ethereum and Terra.
And it just keeps getting better with NFTs, Defi, and dApps.
But we still wonder if Bitcoin will reach the 21 million mark. It would take quite a few years to reach the milestone or should I say the final destination. Before that, it has a journey to conquer that is full of innovations, critiques, more All-Time Highs and lows.
Bitcoin values over US $42,000 on CoinMarketCap at the time of writing with 18,919,400 BTC in circulating supply. There are only a little over 2 million BTC to be mined that is expected to complete by 2078 (if halving and everything else continues in the same fashion as it is now or has been for years).
2040 may be the generic answer for it if you search on Google but it may not be possible to achieve the 21 million mark by then as mining complexity will only grow.
But here is a fun fact, “Roughly 20% of the total BTC circulating supply is trapped in inaccessible wallets or lost whose value is estimated to be over US $140 billion.”
If you ask me, why 21 million cap? Look at this. When paper money or dollar bills were introduced, they were valued against gold. Over time, the scenario changed and the idea of dollar value against gold was dropped in 1971.
Since then, it has been in inflationary mode because all we have is ‘trust’ to back. Now, any government can print paper money out of thin air that only drives inflation.
For Bitcoin, fighting against inflation was primary among many other things (at least that’s what the bitcoin community has realised or decyphered). It is backed by maths and a total supply cap only helps the cause.
Knowing that there is scarcity, the value and demand drive high and the ‘trust’ here remains for a good part.
What If…?
And now the burning questions everyone asks, these are only the what-ifs.
What if the total cap is increased?
First of all, nothing of this sort will happen in my opinion.
Total supply may never be increased, although possible through changes in its core design. Otherwise, it would defeat the whole purpose of having a limited supply currency in the first place. We could just stick to paper money or fiat if we want an inflationary currency. Also, Satoshi would have never wanted this for Bitcoin.
What if BTC is only a bubble?
Like Tulip mania... Nah!! BTC is not a bubble — it is a proven fact by now. Bubbles only burst once and not multiple times within a decade.
Bitcoin has reached its lowest and highest values to date because we — the people — believe in maths and cryptography. If BTC is rising, it will have its dip days. Just know that for every bull, there is a bear. It is just how markets work and not bubbles.
What if BTC never reaches the $1 milliom mark?
For the last what if, BTC will reach US $1 million mark sooner or later. It took a little less than a decade to reach $20,000 (in 2017) and then four years to reach $68,000 (in 2021). It is only a matter of time that BTC will reach $100,000 (I say within 2 years). 2022 has only started — let the market do its job.
For Bitcoin to reach USD 1 million mark will be a remarkable feat, which no one can predict right now for obvious reasons. Its scarcity is enough to drive the value to be a 1 million coin (other factors only boost).
Now you may ask if it is any different from Gold. Yes, it is.
An article published by BBC also suggests that Gold has been found on Moon, although its transportation would be difficult to earth. There are also frequent news about Gold mines being ‘discovered’ in multiple parts of the world. And this doesn’t make gold scare in actuality.
Bitcoin is considered digital gold but it is so much more.
Comparing history and every other factor, Bitcoin shall and will hit 1 million value sooner than you think.
If you want to have a piece of the pie, invest and HODL. Do not look back or give in to the fear. The market may be bearish right now but it will soon see its bullish days.
We Go… To The Moon
BTC was introduced in 2009. In 2013, Ethereum was introduced following a similar suite. Then came along different currencies and blockchains with varied modifications and the reasons driving their worth. However, everything remains open-source and mathematically backed.
There is a reason BTC still dominates the cryptocurrency market. BTC is and will head to the moon — no one can stop it.
Look how far it has come and how far it can only go.
They said the same thing about the internet when it was introduced and now it is Bitcoin.
It is for you to think and know — do you want to HODL or panic buy/sell or not participate at all?
