10-year trough and glory of blockchain
Editor's Note: This article comes fromBlockchain Camp (ID: blockchain_camp)Editor's Note: This article comes from
Blockchain Camp (ID: blockchain_camp)
Blockchain Camp (ID: blockchain_camp)
, Author: ConsenSys, translation: Mingming Ruyue, reproduced by Odaily with authorization.
On January 3, 2009, the global financial crisis exacerbated world economic inequality. In this year, a mysterious figure named Satoshi Nakamoto issued a virtual currency called "Bitcoin". The currency runs on what he calls a "proof-of-work chain."
This is a call for greater justice. Over the next decade, cryptocurrencies and digital assets have entered the early stages of a total transformation of economic and human systems based on the idea of decentralized and democratized finance.
The more than a decade since Bitcoin’s birth has seen incredible highs and lows as blockchain technology has grown and awareness of its potential has grown. As we enter 2020, now is a good time to review the development of blockchain in the past ten years. The technology, which has grown from a digital currency worth only a few cents to an emerging pillar of the global economic system, is still in its infancy.
A little background before we get started: Until late 2009, blockchain development was still very limited. In fact, the first transaction wasn't made on the Bitcoin network until December 2009. The BitcoinTalk forum, an early hotbed for blockchain developers, launched in November. At this point the blockchain ecosystem is limited to a handful of technologists and developers who only have a glimpse of what's already started.
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year 2010
February — Bitcoin Marketplace, the first-ever cryptocurrency exchange, is launched. The first transaction occurred after one month.
April — First public trade of Bitcoin: Bitcoin index is 0.03 USD/ 1 BTC, that is, 1000 Bitcoins are exchanged for 30 USD.
May — Laszlo *Hanyecz* traded 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 "Bad John" pizzas worth a total of $25 in the US, the first real-world Bitcoin transaction.
July — The term "blockchain" appears for the first time on the BitcoinTalk forum. Until then, it has been called a "proof-of-work chain".
August — Bitcoin protocol error leads to emergency fork.
December — Satoshi Nakamoto mysteriously disappears.
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year 2011
January — A quarter of the 21 million bitcoins have been mined.
February — Bitcoin reaches parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time.
April — Bitcoin reaches parity with Euro and British Pound.
June — WikiLeaks begins accepting Bitcoin donations.
August — The first Bitcoin Improvement Proposal emerges: BIP Purpose and Guidelines.
October — Litecoin (LTC) launch.
DECEMBER—Bitcoin is featured as a major plot element in the American drama "The Good Wife," with 9.45 million viewers.
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2012
May — Bitcoin Magazine by Mihai Alisie and Vitalik Buterin publishes its first issue.
JULY — The Estonian government begins incorporating blockchain technology into digital identities.
September — Bitcoin company Coinbase raises over $600,000 in funding.
October — BitPay reports that more than 1,000 merchants accept Bitcoin through its payment processing service.
November — First Bitcoin block reward halved, dropping each block reward to 25 BTC.
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year 2013
February — Reddit Gold members begin accepting payments in Bitcoin.
MAR — Cyprus government charges deposit tax on bank accounts over $100,000. People flocked to buy bitcoin, causing the price of bitcoin to skyrocket.
May — The total value of bitcoin exceeds $1 billion, with $11 million in circulation.
May — Cryptocurrency markets experience their first pumps and crashes. The price of bitcoin rose from $13 to $220 before dropping to $70.
June — First cryptocurrency theft. Bitcoin Forum Founder Stolen 25,000 Bitcoins.
July — Mastercoin becomes the first project to conduct an ICO.
October — FBI shuts down darknet marketplace Silk Road, confiscating approximately 26,000 bitcoins.
Vitalik Buterin
October — First Bitcoin ATM opens at Waves Cafe in Vancouver.
November—Vitalik Buterin publishes the Ethereum white paper: "The Next Generation of Smart Contracts and a Platform for Decentralized Applications."
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November—Bitmain released the S1Miner mining machine.
NOVEMBER — The People’s Bank of China approves the use of Bitcoin, and transaction volumes in China soar to world-leading levels.
November — The U.S. Senate holds its first Bitcoin-related hearing.
December — First commit to the Ethereum codebase.
December—China changes its stance on Bitcoin, declaring that Bitcoin is not a currency.
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Year 2014
January—Vitalik Buterin announces Ethereum at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami.
February — HM Revenue and Customs classifies Bitcoin as a private currency.
February—A massive DDoS attack occurs against three major exchanges: Mt.Gox, Bitstamp, and BTC-e.
February—Mt.Gox goes offline and files for bankruptcy protection. More than 850,000 bitcoins are unaccounted for.
March — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues guidance to begin taxing Bitcoin.
March — Credit card processor Stripe begins supporting Bitcoin.
March—Newsweek claims Dorian Nakamoto is the creator of Bitcoin. But he denied it.
April—Gavin Wood publishes the Ethereum Yellow Paper: "Ethereum: A Secure Decentralized Universal Transaction Ledger".
June - The Ethereum Foundation is established in Zug, Switzerland.
June—The US Marshals Service auctions 30,000 bitcoins confiscated from Silk Road. All were bought by venture capitalist Tim Draper.
July — Ethereum token launch, raising 31,591 BTC (worth ~$18.439 million) in 42 days.
September—TeraExchange launches OTC bitcoin trading approved by the CFTC.
October - Joe Lubin founded ConsenSys.
December—By the end of 2014, Paypal, Zynga, Overstock.com, Expedia, Newegg, Dell, DishNetwork, and Microsoft have all announced acceptance of Bitcoin payments.
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2015
January — Coinbase opens the first U.S. national cryptocurrency exchange.
February—Stripe offers bitcoin payment integration for merchants.
April—NASDAQ launches blockchain trials.
June—The New York State Department of Financial Services publishes the final version of the BitLicense (digital currency license) for virtual currency regulation.
July—Ethereum launches its first mainnet release - Frontier.
August — Augur, a cryptocurrency token launched on the Ethereum platform.
September—The R3 consortium of 3 financial institutions grows to over 40 members in six months.
October - Brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss launch Gemini Exchange.
October—Bitcoin is on the cover of The Economist.
November — The first zero-knowledge proof ZK-Snarks are released.
December—WIRED claims that Craig Wright may be Satoshi Nakamoto.
2016
December—Pieter Wuille publishes "Segregated Witness and Its Implications for Scalability" (SegWit).
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2016
January — Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja publish "The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments".
January—Zcash is released.
February—The Linux Foundation announces the HyperLedger project with 30 founding members.
March—China's 13th Five-Year Plan, blockchain and cryptocurrency play an important role.
March—Homestead, the second phase of the Ethereum mainnet, is launched.
April—The DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) project launched a 28-day crowdfunding campaign. A month later, it raised more than $150 million worth of ether.
May—The China Financial Blockchain Shenzhen Alliance was launched with 31 members.
July—Second Bitcoin block reward halving, dropping rewards to 12.5 BTC per block.
2017
November—The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) publishes the Bitcoin Price Index.
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2017
January—Bitcoin price tops $1,000 for the first time in three years.
February — The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance is formed with 30 founding members, surpassing 150 members six months later.
March — The SEC rejects a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal.
April—Bitcoin is officially recognized as a currency in Japan.
June — EOS kicks off a year-long ICO that ultimately raised $4 billion.
July—Parity attack exposes weaknesses in multi-signature wallets.
August — Segregated Witness is activated, and Bitcoin Cash forks from the Bitcoin network.
October—Ethereum releases the Byzantium soft fork network upgrade as part of Metropolis.
September — China bans ICOs.
September — $1 million locked in decentralized finance applications.
October—Bitcoin price exceeds $5,000 for the first time.
October - Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) launches Bitcoin futures.
November—Bitcoin price exceeds $10,000 for the first time.
November — Segwit2X is canceled after receiving attention from the Bitcoin community.
November — Devcon3 (Ethereum Developers Conference) in Cancun boosts attendance twice to meet developer demand.
December—CBOE launches Bitcoin futures.
December—Bitcoin price reaches $20,000.
December—Lightning Network Protocol 1.0 is released.
December—The block chain cat raising game cryptokitties (obsessed with cats) became popular, pushing the congestion of the Ethereum network to the limit.
December — MakerDAO launches DAI, signaling the future of decentralized finance.
December — Median transaction fees on the Bitcoin network peak at $34.
December — The Austrian government establishes the Institute for Cryptoeconomics.
December - 2017 saw a total of 435 successful ICOs raising a total of over $5.6 billion in funding.
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2018
January—Switzerland begins accepting taxes in Bitcoin.
January — 80% of all bitcoins have been mined.
January—Ether price approaches $1400.
January — Total cryptocurrency market capitalization peaks at over $800 billion.
January—Facebook bans all cryptocurrency-related ads.
March — Lightning Labs deploys the Lightning Network for the first time.
March—Google bans all cryptocurrency-related ads.
March—Twitter bans all cryptocurrency-related ads.
April — ICOs raised $6.3 billion in the first four months of 2018, surpassing 2017.
April — EU government commits $300 million to develop blockchain projects.
April — More than 1,500 cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of $43 million.
June — Ether is not a security, the SEC states.
June — South Korean government invests millions in blockchain development initiative.
July—The number of ERC20 tokens exceeds 100,000.
August—NYSE parent company ICE creates Bakkt, a federally regulated digital asset exchange.
August—The Monetary Authority of Singapore launches Project Ubin, proving that Ethereum can be used for interbank settlements.
October—Fidelity launches cryptocurrency platform to institutional investors.
October—Ten years since the birth of Bitcoin.
November—Venture investment in blockchain technology exceeds $1 billion.
December — Kaspersky reports that 19% of the world's population bought cryptocurrencies before 2019.
2019
December—2018 token offerings raised over $2 billion for the year.
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2019
January—Coinstar devices begin selling cryptocurrencies at grocery stores across the United States.
February—The Ethereum Constantinople hard fork is released, entering the second phase of Metropolis.
April — Total Bitcoin transaction volume exceeds 400 million.
June — Ethereum surpasses 1 million transactions per day.
June—Facebook releases the white paper for the cryptocurrency Libra.
July—The U.S. Senate holds a hearing titled "Reviewing the Regulatory Framework for Digital Currencies and Blockchain."
August — Ethereum has 4x the number of developers of any other blockchain.
September - Bakkt officially launches physically delivered Bitcoin futures.
October—Block.One was fined $24 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for conducting unregistered securities transactions.
October—The number of Ethereum addresses exceeds 80 million.
