What’s the best moment in cryptocurrency history? What’s the worst? Who made the most money? As time goes on, those answers have changed. Some of those moments in crypto history will be forgotten and lost to time,
but others will go down as the defining moments that shaped cryptocurrency into what it is today. This list compiles the 10 most memorable moments of all time in cryptocurrency history.
Top 10 Best Moments in Cryptocurrency History
Section 1
The Mt. Gox Hack – $460 Million Lost – 2014 This is arguably one of the biggest hacks in cryptocurrency history, so it only makes sense that we kick off our list with it. In June 2011, Bitcoin was riding high at $31 per coin. But by November 2013, its value had plummeted to $4 per coin (due to an overall decline in digital currency).
To most people’s relief, however, Bitcoin prices had a bit of a resurgence going into 2014 and began to climb once again. By February 2014, prices were over $800—but on February 25th they suddenly fell by another 40%…leading many analysts to speculate that something bad had happened.
It was soon discovered that on February 7th, Mt. Gox, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges at that time, had been hacked and millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin were stolen.
The hackers made off with 850,000 Bitcoins ($460 million USD at current prices). While it’s unknown how much money Mt. Gox actually had in reserve (as opposed to what investors believed they had), it’s clear that Mt.
Section 2
Routing Attack on Bitcoin’s Peer-to-Peer Network: Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network, where transactions occur directly between two parties. But what if a bad actor wants to trick you into paying him? This can happen when bad actors set up their own nodes on Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network and try to trick others into using them.
This type of attack is called a routing attack (aka double-spend attack) because it tricks people into using certain routes instead of others—in other words,
it could convince your peers that they should send you payments through someone else, not you.
The best part about a blockchain network is that it has no single point of failure. If one node goes down, it doesn’t affect everyone else. So how does a routing attack work? Let’s say you connect to three Bitcoin nodes: Alice, Bob, and Charlie.
Section 3
The Man Who Made Bitcoin Famous and Rich: I was sitting on my porch, overlooking a lake. My girlfriend was swimming. That was when he received his first Bitcoins, Nakamoto said, from a Finnish mathematician he met online who wanted to give him a few coins to get started with.
He came up with the idea of cryptocurrency and suggested that I mine it. So I bought a bunch of graphics cards and set them up at my place here in Honolulu. The power bill almost killed me, but it wasn’t so bad back then.
The first time Nakamoto sent Bitcoin to someone, in 2010, it was to another cryptocurrency enthusiast he’d met online. This peer suggested Nakamoto should exchange his Bitcoins for a better-known currency called USD, which stands for United States Dollar.
Section 4
The Launch of Bitcoin (January 3, 2009) — The White Paper—Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was a seminal moment for cryptocurrencies. It introduced the concept of blockchain technology and decentralized systems to a global audience.
In just ten pages, Satoshi Nakamoto described his groundbreaking work that launched cryptocurrency into a new era. Now, nearly nine years later, cryptocurrency has grown into an enormous industry with hundreds of blockchain-based projects on various networks. Learn more about Bitcoin’s history here.
One year later, on January 3, 2009, Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin to a global audience via a research paper published by The Cryptography Mailing List. In just ten pages he laid out a revolutionary way of decentralizing and digitizing transactions using blockchain technology. This marked an entirely new era for cryptocurrencies that are still affecting our global financial ecosystem today.
Section 5
Bitcoin Pizza Day on May 22, 2010: Early cryptocurrency adopter Laszlo Hanyecz spent $20 worth of bitcoin to buy two Papa John’s pizzas for him and his girlfriend. At that time, it was a significant investment; at press time, those two pizzas were worth approximately $7.5 million.
Today, on what is known as Bitcoin Pizza Day, bitcoin enthusiasts celebrate with free pizza provided by payment processor BitPay (an example of a company that is doing some pretty cool things with blockchain technology).
While I may not be able to snag any free pie from local businesses today (you can actually pay for your order using bitcoins!), I will certainly raise a slice or five to commemorate one of cryptocurrency’s most memorable moments!
Section 6
Bitcoin Pizza Day. In May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin—this was worth about $30 at that time. On June 22, 2017, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $3,000. If Hanyecz had held onto his bitcoins for that day, he would have made a whopping $74 million off of two Papa John’s pizzas.
But you can still buy pizza with it: for example, PizzaForCoins will send you free pizza if you pay them with your coins.
The first Bitcoin transaction was between Satoshi Nakamoto (bitcoin’s creator) and Hal Finney, a cryptographer who acted as an early test subject. The first transaction with bitcoin was completed on January 12, 2009,
when a programmer called Lazlo Hanyecz ordered two pizzas from Papa John’s for $25 delivered to his doorstep in Florida. The guy probably regretted not buying more than two pizzas – since that day, one Bitcoin is worth over $2000.
Section 7
Launching Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto, on a quiet message board and a single website, created something that made people rethink how trust works. The whitepaper he (or she, or they) published laid out exactly how Bitcoin would work, why it would work that way,
and how to use it. It wasn’t flashy — in fact, it was quite dry — but readers were captivated by its promise: a cryptocurrency that couldn’t be faked or double-spent using open-source software run by millions of computer users all over the world.
A few years later, Bitcoin became a household name. At first, its value was so low and it was so difficult to trade than its use as an investment vehicle didn’t make sense — but that changed when Mt. Gox came along.
It was one of the first well-known exchanges, and also one of the first places where you could use your bank account or credit card to buy bitcoins.
Section 8
The first Bitcoin transaction for a physical good. On May 18, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to pay 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas from Papa John’s. Since then, many other deals have taken place using Bitcoin (BTCC), Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies.
For example, let’s consider one seller who recently sold his/her home on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis for $200,000 via blockchain technology. The buyer immediately paid $200k in Bitcoin and a smart contract then transferred ownership to the buyer upon payment being received.
While there are many concerns about privacy and protection of personal information, cryptocurrency is changing how we do business today. In fact, some online sellers have started accepting Bitcoin,
Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies as payment for their goods or services. A seller can earn additional money by simply posting a sign with Bitcoin accepted here on his/her shop window.
Section 9
Bitcoin reaches over $1,000 for the first time. On March 3, 2013, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of over $1,200 before crashing a few days later to around $600. A year later it was worth $260 and today it’s hovering around $6,300 — with plenty of ups and downs along that road.
All we can say is bitcoin right now.
The first time bitcoin reached over $1,000 was on March 3, 2013. This was a huge milestone for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole. Before reaching $1,000 for the first time it had already increased 200% in value since January 1st of that year.
At its highest point that day, it had increased to more than double. The price fell drastically shortly after and continued to do so until 2017 when its value jumped tenfold within 12 months.
Also Read: 6 Tips on How to Get Successful in the Cryptocurrency Industry
#10 Bitcoin futures contracts debut on the CBOE
On December 11, 2017, CBOE listed its first-ever bitcoin futures contracts too much fanfare. The contracts let investors bet on bitcoin’s value without having to purchase cryptocurrency itself. While some argued that listing bitcoin futures would open up a new market for manipulation by traditional banks and financial companies,
others thought it would lead to increased institutional investment in cryptocurrencies. The jury is still out on that one, but we do know that futures trading has led to a surge of interest in bitcoin overall.
Perhaps investors will continue to gravitate toward more traditional vehicles as well; after all, most retail traders don’t have access to fully-regulated crypto exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken.
