What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin — an invention with the potential to transform the future of money — is mired in endless controversies in its 13th year of ruling the crypto world. The question everyone continues to ask is, what exactly is Bitcoin?
To some, Bitcoin is the ``greater fool theory” , while to others it is a colossal scheme to render fiat money obsolete through a seamless exchange of value on the blockchain. Then, there are those who can write a Ph.D thesis describing it as a political , economic and philosophical system which is capable of setting off the ‘Great Reset”.
Bitcoin means different things to different people. To the criminal, it can be devised as a means to hide his ill-gotten wealth from prying eyes, and to realize that it can also be a tax haven for tax evaders is an uncomfortable truth that has continued to shine a spotlight on the evil tendency of Bitcoin and blockchain, its underlying technology.
Bitcoin can be simply defined as a form of digital money represented by a string of numbers that are visible on the computer screen. It has the reputation for being the precursor to what we now know as cryptocurrencies and other forms of digital assets that are traded and acquired for their monetary value.
In other words, it is a virtual currency based on cryptography and sustained by the idea of putting the control and circulation of money in the hands of the people.
BITCOIN’s ORIGIN
What is now known as Bitcoin is a decade and three years old invention,and what we do know is that it is often the subject of a recurring crypto windfall, commonly known as the crypto bear market. We don’t exactly know who invented it, and where it was invented; and it is very much unlike the bulb which has a real name behind it and a country of origin.
However, according to a well-known story of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto is the mystery figure behind it. Across the world, this Japanese sounding name is often seen on every plaque commemorating the invention of what has been called the world’s first and most widely recognized cryptocurrency. But it’s hard to tell whether Satoshi ever lived or whether it is a pseudonym used by a real human who was living through one of the worst global recessions in history.
Hinting at a possible truth, it is often argued that Satoshi Nakamoto could be the identity of a group with a Marxist undertone. Additionally, the recent claim by the Australian computer scientist Craig Wright to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto could not have been more contentious if it was only a joke. But it ended up in a Miami court where the judge in one of his rulings hinted that he could never have been the real Satoshi Nakamoto.
Craig’s case did garner so much attention that it was dubbed by some as “The Bitcoin Trial of The Century”. Instead of resolving the mystery of Satoshi’s disappearance, it has led to more claims by people who appeared to be desperate for fame and recognition for an invention that has continued to fascinate the world.
THE BITCOIN WHITEPAPER
While Satoshi Nakamoto may remain a mystery figure forever, the legacy credited to him is the 2008 whitepaper which explained how a slew of technologies, capable of “allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party”, can solve the “double spend’’ problem.
The Bitcoin Whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” made a strong case for holding and exchanging value in the digital world without relying on the financial system. Nonetheless, this led to the conclusion that Bitcoin can be viewed as an orchestrated plan to undermine and cripple the financial system of the world.
When it is read religiously, one can conclude that the Bitcoin whitepaper described blockchain as a disruptive technology which comes in the form of a distributed ledger used in recording and confirming transactions in an unalterable manner.
THE RISE OF BITCOIN
As Bitcoin began to spread across the world, it started becoming popular among people who were fascinated by how value was created out of it. This group of early Bitcoin users were able to install the open-source software client released by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. And the more people used it, the more Bitcoin grew in value.
However, it would take Bitcoin a little more than a decade to reach the stage where the world began to pay attention to its impact on society and this made more pronounced the potential of blockchain, its underlying technology, to unleash a torrential amount of disruption in organized sectors.
Thanks to Bitcoin, the competitive advantage of leveraging blockchain technology has inspired a slew of innovations such as NFT, DAO, Defi etc, and it has accelerated the growth of its industry, which is currently valued at over 3 billion, an estimate that is projected to see a threefold increase by 2026.
BITCOIN V GOLD
The price of Bitcoin reached an All Time High(ATH) of $69,045,00 on the 10th of November, 2021, surpassing that of gold.
THE FUTURE OF BITCOIN
Bitcoin, like most crypto-currencies, is a speculative asset in the real sense. And it holds so much sway over the entire crypto market that a sharp decline in its price often results in a bear market, where the vast majority of cryptos owned and traded lose their value.
In other words, a bear market is usually a period in the life of Bitcoin where a significant loss is sustained by crypto traders and investors and one in which the market recovery is slow and difficult to predict.
The price volatility of the crypto market, the rise in crypto scams and the anti-social tendencies of blockchain technology are some of the reasons why many believe that the financial empire built by Bitcoin will soon crumble and bring an end to the Wild West situation it has created in the digital world.
