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Bitcoin! World's largest cryptocurrency celebrates 14 years of existence

It's January 3, 2009 and the first spark of an explosive market is emerging. Exactly 14 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first cryptocurrency on the planet, bitcoin (BTC). From there, an entire ecosystem based on innovative blockchain technology emerged.

And how intense the last 14 years have been! From controversies involving its creation — it is not known whether Satoshi is a person, a group of people or something like that — to its first uses on the deep web for shady transactions, BTC has gone through several trials.

But the fact is that bitcoin is the father of the entire cryptocurrency universe, which reached more than two trillion dollars in market value. This is because he opened his eyes to the uses of blockchain technology, allowing the creation of protocols with the security of this new technology.

Understand below why bitcoin was so revolutionary — and the best cryptocurrency moments since 2009:

The birth of bitcoin with blockchain... First of all, it is necessary to understand what is the technology that gave rise to BTC. Blockchain is nothing more than an information storage system.

For a better understanding, experts define the blockchain as a sequence of chained and sealed glass blocks, impossible to modify.

The differential of this technology is that it uses a sophisticated encryption method that prevents alteration of on-chain information. In this way, the blockchain is an immutable record that ensures that all transactions are made transparently.

Characteristics of BTC...Bitcoin is completely decentralized — that is, there is no issuing entity behind it, each token being issued by the network itself through mining — and it has no ballast.

More than that, bitcoin is considered digital gold for some characteristics: it is scarce, restricted to 21 million units, and intends to be used as a standard by the digital market.

The uses of BTC...Since its inception, bitcoin has aimed to be a financial system apart from the traditional market, without the need for a bank or guarantor behind it.

Thus, since 2009, it is possible to make a value transaction using BTC with the transfer between digital wallets (wallets).

However, the first uses of bitcoin were in unclear transactions in the far corners of the internet. After all, trades are semi-anonymous due to the very nature of this blockchain design.

Time has passed and this bad reputation continues. But BTC has also come to be used as a store of value and can still be used for payments — especially after the creation of the Lightning Network, which increases the speed of transactions.

As for prices…Bitcoin reached historic highs at $68,672 in 2021. Some analysts even projected that quotes could skyrocket to $120,000 with increased adoption of cryptocurrencies by the traditional market.

However, 2022 was a difficult year for cryptocurrencies. Since the highs, BTC has retreated more than 75%, accumulating a 63% drop in 12 months.

But some see the glass as half full. Since the historic lows, bitcoin's return is in the order of 25,413.90%, according to Cryptorank.

Great moments and curiosities of bitcoin:

In June 2021, El Salvador took a step that went down in history, becoming the first country to adopt bitcoin as one of its official currencies;

In November of the same year, BTC reached its all-time highs, close to $69,000;

In 2009, there was only BTC and, 14 years later, the cryptocurrency market has more than 22,000 projects related to infrastructure, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), NFTs and much more;

Currently, more than 65 entities across countries and publicly traded companies have bitcoin on their balance sheets and National Treasuries;

The world's largest bitcoin wallet has around 130,000 BTC, equivalent to $2.77 billion.

Renan Souza, Brazil