The debut of Bitcoin opened the gates of the world market for Cryptocurrency. From being the first cryptocurrency to the world’s most popular one, it had come a long way since 2008. Bitcoin has become a substitute term for cryptocurrency.
Bitcoins have a popular name among the cryptocurrency merchants. It has not only broken the norms of mainstream payments but is also becoming an essential part of technology and the industrial market gradually.
Although some countries do not embrace Bitcoins for several reasons, some have accepted them as a legitimate payment mode and even provided it the status of a commodity. The difference between its initial and present value reflects the increasing love for this digital asset.
Let’s look at some statistics and facts about Bitcoin to comprehend their journey from the first pizza transaction, to becoming a payment mode in major economies of the world.
General statistics about Bitcoin
Below are a few general statistics of this cryptocurrency.
- Bitcoin is the world’s largest cryptocurrency, with an estimated market of $147,000, 000, 000.
- The market capitalization of Bitcoin is $144,239,070,724.
- The price of one Bitcoin is equal to $9015.38.
- The present circulating stream of Bitcoin is 18006637.5 BTC, with 2959287.5 left to be mined.
- There are about 32 Million Bitcoin wallets in the world.
- On average, 144 blocks are mined daily, which means about 12.5 times Bitcoins, i.e., 1800 BTC. There are about 603257 blocks mined.
- The number of confirmed Bitcoin transactions per day currently fluctuates between 300k-450k, with highest in December 2017 at 490k.
- The current average block size, while writing this article, is 0.80 MB; with Mempool Size is 1194210, which is the number of transactions waiting to be confirmed.
(Source: Coin Market, Blockchain.com)
1.The Bitcoin exchanges
The worth of Bitcoin in the crypto market is enormous. Many exchanges contribute to this value, but some names are too big to overlook. Here is a list of the world’s largest exchanges of Bitcoins.
The graph below shows the value and volume of the Bitcoin Exchanges in Million Dollars.
(Source: Bitcoin World-Wide)
2. Value of Bitcoin
Under statistics, we have brought you the value of Bitcoins in the ten largest economies of the world. Please note that the enlisted entries are according to the cost of Bitcoin at the time of writing this article.
In the United States of America, the world’s largest economy, the value of one Bitcoin is $9015.38. The value of Bitcoin in the Chinese currency is around 63,179.78 Chinese Yuan. (1 Yuan=$0.14)
One Bitcoin cost 9,82,225.65 Japanese Yen. (1 Yen= $0.0092) In the fatherland of Germany, it is 8,171.54 Euro that is equal to one Bitcoin. (1 Euro= $1.10)
In the UK, one Bitcoin equals 7,033.80 Pound sterling (1 Pound Sterling= $1.26). France uses the same currency as Germany, which is the Euro.
In the land of festivals, one Bitcoin is equivalent to about 6,44,004.65 Indian Rupees (1 Rupee=$0.014). The land of wines Italy also has Euro as its currency, and thus the value of Bitcoin is the same as that in France and Germany.
In Brazil, you need to pay 37,537.34 Brazilian Real for one Bitcoin (1 Brazilian Real= $0.24). In Canada, it costs around 11,918.33 Canadian Dollars for one Bitcoin. (1 Canadian Dollar= $0.76)
The market always keeps deceiving, and so does the value of Bitcoin. The value may differ at different points of time, even while you are reading this article.
(Source: Investopedia)
General Facts about Bitcoin
The great Bitcoin market and its figures in supply and share of the digital currency market certainly make us inquisitive about it. There are many facts and myths regarding this cryptocurrency. Some of them can compel you to doubt your knowledge about the cryptocurrency.
Here are some facts about Bitcoin. You might already know about some of them, but some would surely leave you struck dumb.
3.Founder of Bitcoin
Bitcoin was founded on 31st October 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. However, the name is still is a mystery.
Many people believe that it is a ’ghost name’ and is derived from SAMSUNG and TOSHIBA. Similarly, Nakamoto is assumed to be derived from Nakamichi and Motorola.
Like many other people in March 2010, Craig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin, which like all other claims, turned out to be a scam.
The Bitcoin is still searching for the name of its inventor. For now, Satoshi Nakamoto is the most probable name that the world knows.
(Source: Medium)
4. Want Pizza? How many Bitcoins do you have?
It would interest you to know that the first documented deal through Bitcoins was a pizza purchase. Yes! On 22 May 2010, a Hungarian developer ‘Laszlo Hanyecz’ bought two large pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins. It was nearly $600 then.
If you calculate the amount concerning today’s Bitcoin value, you find that Hanyecz paid nearly $70 million for two pizzas. It became a landmark in the history of Bitcoins, and to commemorate this bizarre transaction and first-ever Bitcoin deal; this day is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza day since then.
(Source: QZ)
5. The initial value of Bitcoin
The pizzas seemed expensive to us. The value that Hanyecz paid was according to the value of Bitcoin then. The price of the first-ever Bitcoin was $0.003. Yes! Now it may be easy for you to understand that why would one pay this hefty amount for two pizzas.
One thing to note here is the long journey of the cryptocurrency from $0.003 to the million dollars that we see today.
(Source: Fine Extra)
6. Is Bitcoin a Currency or Commodity?
There is a non-ending debate regarding Bitcoin about considering it as a currency or commodity. Bitcoin does not fit in the definition of currency that is given by Merriam Webster Dictionary.
The cryptocurrency does not possess all the prescribed characteristics. Looking at this, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission of USA considers it as a commodity.
Similarly, Salil Deshpande, Managing Director of Bian Venture Capital, also refers to all cryptocurrencies as representative currencies; thus, they can be used to represent money at sometimes but cannot be considered a standard currency.
Thus, the world seems to agree upon considering Bitcoin as a commodity instead of currency.
(Source: Forbes)
7. How do you measure a Bitcoin transaction?
You can measure all the Bitcoin transactions. The unit of measuring Bitcoin transactions is Satoshi per byte. The unit is derived from the first name of the Bitcoin inventor.
1 Satoshi = 1/100000000 Bitcoin transaction and is naturally a minimal quantity.
(Source: Blockchain.com)
8. The world has only 21 million Bitcoins
You know that nothing in the universe is eternal, and so neither are the Bitcoins. Bitcoin is limited. Yes! You heard it right. If you are addicted to Bitcoin transactions, you need to control yourself. You and the world have only 21 million units of Bitcoin.
However, all of them are not mined, but experts and the world assume that once all of them are extracted, there would be nearly 21 million of them. But guess what? The good news is that it would take as long as 121 years to mine all of them, which means the world would witness all the mined Bitcoins in the year 2140.
Another fact about the cryptocurrency would blow your mind, and it is that 64% of the Bitcoins are never used and might would never be used in the future. These are called the ‘ghost Bitcoins.’
(Source: Investopedia)
9. Even Elves cannot decode Bitcoin’s Private keys
Known for their million-year lifespan, even elder elves cannot decrypt the Bitcoin’s Private keys. They are composed of integers from 1-1077. Even at 1 trillion guesses per second, it will take 1033 years to decode a private key.
But what these elves cannot do, it is possible by man-made quantum computers.
(Source: Bit Novosti)
10. Bitcoin is banned in some countries
Unlike Japan, not all countries admire cryptocurrencies. Reportedly, there are following six countries that have banned Bitcoins, in fact, any cryptocurrencies;
Nepal, Morocco, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Ecuador, Bangladesh.
These countries have banned the cryptos for one or the other reason. Canada has diplomatic laws for cryptocurrency exchanges. Money laundering through digital currency is illegal in the country. However, you can use it in barter transactions. A few banks in the country have banned Bitcoin transactions through their credit or debit cards.
Many countries seem to join this list very soon due to the legal and official procedures reported there.
Recently, India, the seventh-largest economy of the world caught the eye of the world when a draft titled ‘banning of cryptocurrency and regulation of official digital currency bill’ was drafted proposing imprisonment of ten years on making any deal through cryptocurrency including its generation, mining, selling, holding and transferring.
(Source: Fool.com)
11. Bitcoin’s Network stomps top 500 Supercomputers
Some of us may think about how powerful Bitcoin network can be. Well, it is powerful enough to surpass many supercomputers.
The network of Bitcoins combines to form a super-powerful network that is worth billions of dollars of hardware. It is among an exascale computer, i.e., it can compute quintillion floating-point calculations per second.
(Source: Quartz)
12. Bitcoin floats in Space
BitSat, a cube of 10×10 cm, has been launched in space by Dunvegan Space Systems. Well, what will these cubes do?
They will do what an average satellite does, i.e., communicate. It is proposed that a system of 24 such cubes across the lower orbit of earth can provide global coverage to Bitcoin network.
These satellites are supposed to work as a backup for most of the data in ground networks. They will act as truth beacons and update their information every 15 minutes independently.
(Source: The Balance)
13. Is Bitcoin Privacy-Friendly?
Bitcoin is fully encrypted; that is one thing, but what about other privacy concerns?
Even though many folks propagate that Bitcoin transactions are anonymous and untraceable, this fact is not valid. There are some methods via which Bitcoin transactions can be confined to an individual.
The easiest method is using the data of cryptocurrency trade exchanges. They collect vital data of their customers including their name, address, phone number, and even their IPs. Any attack from hackers or pressure from government could force these agencies to reveal this info. Even the crypto wallets are vulnerable to it.
(Source: Wall Street)
Some Unaffordable Falls from the Ladder
Achievement is not only something that creates history, but some losses also remain scribbled in the pages of History. Here is the list of some worst failures or losses of Bitcoins that became the talk of the town in the cryptocurrency market.
These losses are so astonishing that they are no less than a few achievements in the journey of Bitcoins. When we are discussing the world’s most popular Cryptocurrency, overlooking these losses would not do justice.
14.The Hard Drive That Cost $127 Million
The year 2013 would have been the most unfortunate year for James Howell. An IT worker from Newport, who accidentally threw away a hard drive that had nearly $127 million.
Howell told that he safely kept the hard drive of his broken laptop recognizing the worth of the Bitcoins, which he thought would increase in the future. And that is precisely what happened.
But, Alas! The poor man accidentally threw it in a garbage bin during a clear-out where it was dampened in a landfill site. Howell is now looking forward to digging the landfill up to search for his $127 million.
(Source: CNBC)
15. WannaCry Indeed Made the World Cry
Howell’s loss might be an instance of an unlucky day, but the WannaCry ransomware attack was an intentionally thrown mace to destroy the walls of the security and more than that the credence of millions of cryptocurrency users.
It was May 2017 when ransomware called WannaCry attacked the Windows computers. The Ransomware encrypted data of thousands of computers, and some people also reported the demands of ransom through Bitcoin.
Precisely, the first attack of the crypto ware was reported on 12th May. Reports claim that about 150 countries got trapped within a day. It was due to the leak of ‘EternalBlue’ by some anonymous group, which was created to be used as an exploit by NSA for older versions of Microsoft.
Microsoft soon recognized the attack and advised the organizations worldwide to apply the patches that it released just before the attack. Naturally, the systems that were already equipped with those patches survived the attack efficiently.
Though almost 150 countries were affected by the attack, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, and India were among the countries which were brutally hit by the ransomware. However, the world could never find the prime mastermind behind it, but some countries held North Korea responsible for this cyber calamity.
(Source: RHEA Group)
16. Three consecutive attacks on Bitcoinica
Bitcoinica is an online trading company, which was founded by Zhou Tong in the year 2011. Tong founded it at a very young age of 17. But this is not the reason for its popularity. Instead, the three consecutive attacks by hackers in the web host from March-July 2012 made it the cynosure of the Bitcoin market.
In March 2012, as Bitcoinica reported, hackers exploited the vulnerability of the WebHost and stole nearly 43,000 Bitcoins from the company. Tong barely knew that it was going to be a heavy cross to bear.
The company got hit by another attack, this time at Rackspace, another server host merely within two months in May 2012. Hackers managed to steal around 18000 Bitcoins.
Another attack that proved nothing less than a doom’s day for Bitcoinica took place in July of the same year. Hackers stole around 40,000 Bitcoins this time, leaving the organization almost bankrupt.
(Source: CCN)
17. The Fascinating case of QuadrigaCX
QuadrigaCX was an offspring of the parent company Quadriga Fintech Solutions in Canada. The company had to owe more than 26,000 BTC after the death of the owner.
Gerald Cotton, the founder, and CEO of the company, died suddenly in December 2018. The company owes CA$250 million to its customers. It was impossible to acquire the amount because it was only Gerald who knew the passwords and other credentials of the cold wallet, and he was no more a part of this world.
When Ernst and Young monitored and audited, they dropped a bombshell by exposing that there were only 100 BTC in the wallets and not a single penny more. Five cold wallets were reported empty since April 2018.
It is still a mystery where the firm invested all the money of its clients because the monitoring firm, by any means, could not manage to acquire any documented evidence of any investment.
Some customers accuse Cotton of faking his death and believe he is still alive, however his widowed wife, as claimed, has all the required documents including the death certificate, which was issued by a local municipality of Jaipur, in India where Cotton took his last breath.
(Source: Economic Times)
18. Story of The First Licensed Cryptocurrency Exchange of Europe
‘Bitstamp’ holds the tag of the first licensed cryptocurrency exchange of Europe. The company grabbed the attention for another reason too. In 2015, the company was hit by an attack through a malicious file that was sent to the internal mail of the employees of the organizations.
One of the employees followed the link that gave hackers access to the wallets. It allowed the hackers to steal Bitcoins amounting to around $5,000,000.
The attack took place on the 4th of January, and it almost ruined the wallets. Though the attack was assumed to enter on December 29th, 2014, but it was reported late after five days.
The Bitstamp team readily took a defensive decision. The company rebuilt its entire online trading platform. However, it was an exorbitant rampart, but the company found it necessary to prevent further loss and to restore the confidence of customers.
(Source: Hacker Noon)
19. The Number Flow Error
In August 2010, Jeff Garzik, a Bitcoin developer, noticed a block that contained 92 Billion Bitcoins. It was not only a colossal number but also larger than the expected total numbers of Bitcoins in the world ever.
Garzik soon realized the attack by some unknown scammer who used a number flow bug. These kinds of bugs increase the number after a certain amount. It confuses the user and any tries of fixing the bug open the gate of theft or loss.
Wladimir Van Der Laan, the lead developer of Bitcoin, called it the worst problem ever.
(Source: Coin Desk)
20. The Eternal Loss of many Bitcoins
Seeing all the above cases might make some people crazy, but the bigger blunder is yet to be released.
In a survey conducted by Chain-analysis in 2017, nearly 3.79 million of Bitcoins are down the drain already. This was about 23% of net bitcoins, with the lowest assumption of lost BTC at 2.78 Million, i.e., ~17%.
This accounts for about 32 billion BTC lost forever. There are about 18 million bitcoins in circulation today. However, the rarity of this currency is going to give rise to its value as well as encourage other forms of cryptocurrency.
(Source: Fortune)
21. Hackers Stole whopping $32 Million worth Bitcoin in a recent incident
With evolving technologies, the rise of malicious hackers is also apparent. Bitcoin isn’t immune to such effects.
In a recent incident in July 2019, Japan’s cryptocurrency exchange, Bitpoint, was struck by an attack. It stole about 3.5 billion Yen, i.e., about $32 million worth BTC.
These funds were filched from a cold wallet, which possessed other cryptocurrencies also. They immediately suspended the services once they knew of the loss. Prior to this, Japan’s crypto operators warned them to take drastic measures due to a similar attack on CoinCheck in 2018.
(Source: Bloomberg)
The Pioneers in The History of Bitcoins
Bitcoin has come a long way. It is no more mere cryptocurrency. Some countries have recognized it as an asset and a due payment. Its growth in increasing market value is an instance of worldwide popularity and utility. But as they say, Rome was not built in a day. Here is the list of some firsts in the history of Bitcoin, which you should know.
22. The First Bitcoin Transaction
The history recorded the first transaction of Bitcoin back on 12 January 2012. Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, sent 10 Bitcoins to Hel Finney on this day.
The prime objective of this transaction was to check and know the strength and efficiency of the blockchain network. Satoshi wanted to see the working of the network, to make any required changes improving its functioning.
(Source: News Bitcoin)
23. The First Bitcoin Purchase
The first transaction or say a deal that was completed by using Bitcoins was a pizza purchase. Yes! You recognized it right. It is the same purchase, which is commemorated every year as Bitcoin Pizza day.
On 22 May 2010, a Hungarian developer ‘Laszlo Hanyecz’ bought two large pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins. It was the first recorded purchase by Bitcoins.
It is a momentous day in the history of Bitcoin because, before that, no dealer accepted Bitcoins in place of the conventional forms of money. Looking at its value today, it also seems the world’s most expensive pizza ever, but there are no such records.
(Source: Ledger)
24. The First Bitcoin Exchange
There are several Bitcoin exchanges in the world today. But it all started with a proposal by dwdollar on a Bitcoin talk Forum on 15 January 2010, where he told about his plan of building an exchange where Bitcoin would be a commodity and people would exchange them to dollars.
He named the platform Bitcoinmarket.com. This website came into action merely within three months of the proposal on 17th March 2010. Since it was a primary initiative, therefore, it was not defensive enough against its scammers. On June 4, 2011, PayPal, the only exchange medium of the platform, removed itself from it.
Bitcoinmarket.com was not only the first exchange of Bitcoins, but also it was the first exchange opened for any cryptocurrency.
(Source: News Bitcoin)
25. The First Organization to Accept Bitcoins
The list of companies or organizations that accept Bitcoins as a legitimate payment is very long today. Naturally, there was a time when there were no names on this list.
The first name on this list was of Wikimedia Foundation. It was the first-ever organization of any kind to recognize Bitcoin as an exchange medium and provided it the status of a commodity.
Wikimedia is a charitable organization which is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The non-profitable organization started to take donations through Bitcoins on July 30, 2014.
Today, several companies accept Bitcoin. Some of them also hold the tag of being among the largest companies in the world. Some noteworthy names in this list include Microsoft, Wikipedia, KFC, Expedia, overstock, Namecheap, Newegg, 4Chan, and many more.
PayPal, the company that once removed itself from the first Bitcoin exchange platform in 2011, also accepts Bitcoins as a medium of exchange.
(Source: 99 Bitcoins)
26. The First Bitcoin Theft
The first theft of Bitcoins was reported on June 13, 2011. On this day, Allinvain, a Bitcoin user, suddenly posted about the hack. The hack, as the user claims, entered his slush’s pool account.
The user faced a loss of about 25000 BTC. At that time, it was equal to around $480,000. The investigators also claimed that the hacker tried to pay the Bitcoin with Mt. Gox in exchange for some cash or money.
No documented records claiming restore of theft amount are available. It was the incident when almost all the forum users advised the world to keep the Bitcoins in different wallets instead of holding them collectively in a single one.
The Bitcoin experts also believe that ullage of the defensive technologies at that time was also one of the reasons for the theft. The availability of technologies like SIM swapping today has reduced the risk of any such incident. Also, the fact of such Bitcoin thefts still occurring cannot be overlooked.
(Source: News Bitcoin)
27. The First Version of Bitcoin
There are around 60 versions of Bitcoins available today. The history of these versions marks its beginning back in 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin version 0.1 on January 9.
This version of Bitcoin was supported only by Windows and not by other operating systems. Naturally, confining it to only a single operating system was not going to work. Also, many users reported several bugs in the version.
To fix these bugs, several other versions were created. However, they do not acquire a place in the list of Bitcoin versions and are merely called the bug fixing versions.
In the same year, on December 16, a new version called Bitcoin 0.2 was introduced. It was the first version that supported multi-core mining. Many new versions were created after that.
At the time of writing the article, the most recent version available is 0.18.1, which was released on August 9, 2019.
(Source: Bitcoin News)
Bizarre Facts About Bitcoin
Some facts of anything can be so strange that they can shake your mind upside down. If you think you know everything about Bitcoin, then you are wrong. Here are some unusual but exciting facts that you do not about the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. Some of them would swirl your mind. Let us see what they are.
28. The Bitcoin Mascot
It would sound interesting that there is a dilemma regarding the mascot of the Bitcoin. Many believe that Honeybadger is the mascot of Bitcoin. It is a mammal that is found mostly in Africa and Southwest Asia.
It is believed so because the mammal is a strong creature that can survive the attacks of even the poisonous snakes. Bitcoin is still enduring the same way after many ups and downs in the market. The determination of survival in Bitcoin resembles the animal and so the belief.
But in a Bitcoin forum of April 2011, ‘Alpaca,’ a sheep resembling mammal was proposed to make it the mascot of Bitcoin by submitting its drawing. The wool of the animal is used to make socks, which were among the first few commodities that could be purchased against Bitcoins.
The proposal was drafted with the view of commemorating one of the few first purchases, which was not accepted.
Therefore, officially, there is no mascot of Bitcoin to date. Honey Badger and Alpaca are the only two participants in the race. The competition might get tougher if other participants join the race.
(Source: Coin Desk)
29. The Carnivorous Feast ‘MeatUp’
Yes! You’ve read it correctly. MeatUp is a conference where some prominent Bitcoiners meet up to MeatUp. It is a carnivore feast where almost every guest consumes only the meat or other nonveg dishes.
No herbivore dish is available at the conference. Some people even quoted that you cannot work in the industry of cryptocurrency, or Bitcoin, for that matter, if you cannot transform yourselves in a carnivore.
The book, ‘The Bitcoin standard,’ by Saifedean Ammous, also preaches carnivory, particularly among Bitcoiners.
(Source: INC)
30. Bitcoin Jargons
A few terminologies associated with Bitcoin are very strange. ‘Whale’ is a popular terminology among the Bitcoiners. Whale, in Bitcoin, refers to a person who owns many Bitcoins. It is also used in video games to depict the wealthy folks who buy expensive packs in video games.
Probably, being the largest mammal on the earth is the reason for selecting this term. It indicates directly to something mammoth or occupying a remarkable space.
FUD is another terminology associated with the Bitcoin. It is an abbreviated form created with the help of initial letters of the words Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. FUD is used when there is some uncertainty regarding the investment, pricing, or any other issues in the Bitcoin market.
(Source: CNBC)
31. The Bizarre Naming Scheme
The Bitcoiners might be aware of the word ‘HODL,’ which is an abbreviation of Hold On for Dear Life.
It was a mistake. ‘GameKyuubi,’ who is credited with finding this word says, that he misspelled the word ‘Hold.’ Afterward, he associated the newly invented word with inexperienced traders in the Bitcoin market. Till then, it became a trending word among the Bitcoiners, and they started using it widely.
Later, in the year 2013, it was made a part of the English language; thus, providing a new word to its vocabulary.
(Source: Hacker noon, CNBC)
32. The Bitcoin Gone Once Has Gone Forever
If you accidentally send some Bitcoins to someone, you cannot recover it. Yes! Before you land in the Bitcoin market, know that you cannot undo a Bitcoin transaction. Once you send some Bitcoin to someone, the transaction cannot be recovered by any means, unless the recipient sends it back to you.
To understand this, you need to understand the technical and internal working of the Bitcoin network, which is designed in a way that, once initiated, you cannot cancel the transaction.
(Source: Blockchain Blog)
33. Rest in Peace, Bitcoin!
You live every day, but you die once. Apology! We don’t remember who said that. But whoever it is, has never used a Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has died 377 times at the time of the writing. The number may increase in the future. Yes! 377 times the world published Bitcoin obituaries in different ways. 377 times different people warned the world about the discourse of Bitcoins.
The most recent obituary was reported on September 24, 2019, when ‘Portfolio wealth global’ stated about the disappearance of Bitcoins after a video of Jim Rogers, a business and a financial commentator, was released where he was talking about the economic collapse.
Bitcoin has been declared dead many times since 2010, with a minimum number of 1 obituary to a maximum of 93 last year.
(Source: 99 Bitcoins)
34. Bitcoin has 430 children
Bitcoin has a family. Yes, it has about 430 children. These are called Altcoins. Altcoins are the alternative cryptocurrencies that you use in place of Bitcoin.
Or, more precisely, these are the cryptos that are generated from the first cryptocurrency. The above definition does not suit every crypto expert because it places other prominent cryptocurrencies like Ethereum in the list.
Except for the Bitcoin, some people refer to all other cryptocurrencies as altcoins. Altcoins may differ in functions, platforms, or even the purpose for which they are used.
Since Bitcoin opened the doors of the crypto market to let other cryptocurrencies enter it, it is not wrong to say that Bitcoin is the head of the family of cryptocurrencies.
(Source: Medium, Crypto Briefing)
35. Is Bitcoin a Ponzi Scheme?
Some people consider Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi or pyramid scheme is a way of enhancing business by adding people and convincing them to add more people further.
Though some people consider it a myth, some still believe that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. There are no documented shreds of evidence of either of them. But it is indeed bizarre to know that one of the most popular cryptocurrencies also holds the tag of being a pyramid scheme.
(Source: Medium.com)
36. The Bitcoin Ransom
Paying ransom to get someone free from kidnappers is familiar, but paying it through Bitcoins is unheard of.
In December 2017, a Bitcoin analyst named Pavel Lerner was kidnapped in Ukraine. The kidnappers set him free in exchange for $1 million in Bitcoins. Yes! Bitcoins worth $1 million.
Naturally, it was a considerable amount. The person who paid the ransom is unknown to date. Lerner is a Blockchain expert, no offense, but maybe it was the reason the kidnappers asked for a ransom in Bitcoins.
(Source: Reuters)
37. I’m James Grant
In October 2013, Rogers Data Centre of Canada received a message through a chat that read, ‘I’m James Grant, owner of Canadian Bitcoins and what happened after that became the history.
After a few more messages, the fake James managed to convince him to provide him access to the company’s server.
As soon as he acquired it, he robbed Bitcoins worth $100,000 then.
(Source: CCN)
38. Faux Pas of The US Government
In the auction of the US Silk Road, Bitcoin was already going to be historical, but a blunder made its way before it took place.
The US government sent an email to all the participants but did not use BCC. Thus, it allowed every recipient to see all the other emails to which they sent the mail. A scammer mailed a few of the would-be participants by faking himself as a journalist.
Sam Lee, too, was target by the fake journalist and proved to be a productive target. He followed the link, which was supposed to be a list of interview questions and faced a loss of 100 Bitcoins. The scam was quite dramatic and made Bitcoins infamous for one more reason.
(Source: Coin Desk)
39. Bitcoin can even Deliver Babies
Well, we know Bitcoin has many children, aka other crypto-currencies, but do you know that there is a real-life Bitcoin-Baby!
Yes, in late 2012, a couple rushed to a hospital for upcoming newbie. Initially, the parents weren’t ready for cryptocurrency transactions, but a lucrative offer from Dr Lee with 50% discount on Bitcoin payment lured them.
Thus, came the first baby born with cryptocurrency transactions. Later on, many more offers went to this doctor for such transactions.
(Source: The Telegraph)
40. FBI! Hands in the Air, or Say Hand me your Pocket!
Are we in trouble or something? Well, you actually can if you are running illegal trade with Bitcoin or any other currencies.
The case of Silk Road is known to the entire world. We won’t be elaborating it here. The thrilling fact here is when protector converts to an exploiter.
After the incident of catching Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road Founder, Agent Carl Force stressed this golden goose and tried milking him. He opened a Bitstamp account and made Ulbricht pay 1200 BTC.
Similar to this, agent Shaun Bridges, another agent working on the same case too siphoned Bitcoins, unaware of his colleague’s acts. Both of them were caught later on in an investigation.
(Source: ARS Technica)
41. Bitcoin Tax Theft? You’ll still be caught one day!
As we know, cryptocurrency thefts have been prevalent since day 1 of its emergence. Bitcoin also has seen many such thefts.
But, one of the common thefts with Bitcoin is tax cheats. Due to its anonymity, it is difficult to track full profits/losses in Bitcoins. But still, IRS has come up with some plan to reveal such thefts.
They’ve now partnered with a crypto exchange named Chainanalysis. The company claims to have info on about 25% Bitcoin addresses, accounting for about 50% transaction of all BTC activity.
In 2015, about 802 people declared profit/loss from this currency. Maybe with evolving encryption methods and anonymity, it will become a hair-pulling task to figure out such tax thefts in cryptocurrencies.
(Source: Fortune)
Some To-Know Facts About Bitcoin
If you aim at becoming a Bitcoin expert before you enter it, here are some more facts and a few plans of the world regarding the cryptocurrency that you should know. These would undoubtedly boost your knowledge about Bitcoin. These are some miscellaneous facts that you may or may not know.
42. Bitcoin Maths
There has been some sort of mathematics behind the Bitcoin or the way it functions. The cryptography behind the Bitcoin is based on a curve called an Elliptic curve.
The algebraic equation of the curve is y2=x3+7.
Cryptographically, the Bitcoin system uses the Elliptic curve’s digital signature algorithm to protect the keys and keep a watch on transactions. The elliptic curve is sometimes called the heart of the Bitcoin protocol.
(Source: ICO Watch)
43. The Physical Equivalent of Bitcoin
It would interest you to know that Bitcoin is not purely digital. It means that you can have a Bitcoin physically. There is a physical equivalent of the Bitcoin, which is called Casascius. Mike Caldwell, from the US, introduced these coins in 2011.
These coins are generally yellow, and the hologram over them hides the private key. Caldwell only provides you these coins in exchange for Bitcoins. Few more online platforms offer you Casascius through different payment modes other than Bitcoins.
(Source: Medium.com)
44. Bitcoins Are Pseudonymous
By saying that Bitcoins are pseudonymous, we mean that you cannot acquire any physical world identity of a person through Bitcoin address.
A Bitcoin address is a virtual address generated by Blockchain during the time of transaction and is not a physical identity; thus, you cannot identify the sender or the receiver merely using this virtual identity.
(Source: Block Geeks)
45. You Do Not Require Any Permission to Use Bitcoins
Since Bitcoins are a digital form of money, many of you might be thinking about the authority or control over them. But contrary to your assumptions, you do not require any permission from any organization or individual to use them.
You merely require installing an application for Bitcoins, and then you can make any legitimate transactions through it.
Yes, of course, you need to buy Bitcoins from the specified organizations or place; but transactions are free/uncontrolled, just like the way you are free to spend the cash you have in your pockets.
(Source: Block Geeks)
46. Bitcoin and its related Crimes
Criminal associations are common these days. Though different cryptocurrencies are used for illegal or criminal transactions, the most popular andpreferred cryptocurrency is Bitcoin.
These crimes are undertaken through a ransomware attack on multiple computers simultaneously by merely asking for a ransom in the form of cryptocurrency, as we saw in Lerner’s case; or even old-fashioned extortions, robbery, etc.
Experts recognize many reasons for it, one of them is unawareness about the cryptocurrency among ordinary people.
Bitcoin accounts for over 95% of the crimes involved in cryptocurrency.
(Source: Bitcoin Magazine, Fortune)
47. The Bitcoin Millionaires
Do you know that only 1000 people in the world own 40% of the Bitcoins? Among those 1000, some are there on our list of Bitcoin millionaires. Here is a list consists of the top five millionaires in the world.
- Barry Silbert (Digital Currency Group)
- Blythe Masters (CEO of Digital Asset Holdings)
- Dan Morehead (Panthera Capital)
- Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (Gemini exchange for Cryptocurrencies)
- Michael Novogratz (Fortress Investment Group)
The list we created is according to the data that is available at the time of writing this article. Crypto-market is variable. There is a possibility of a few changes in the list depending upon the time at which you read the article.
(Source: Investopedia)
48. Top 10 Leading Cities in Bitcoin Adoption
Bitcoin adoption depends on several factors apart from just number of bitcoin users or merchants. Populous size or say number of users per region are primary factors in this calculation. It is very different from simple Bitcoin
San Francisco tops this list with highest per capita BTC merchants and 29 bitcoin ATMs, A. CoinBase, the most prominent start-up in the crypto market, is in this city.
This is followed by Vancouver, Canada, with 86 BTC merchants and 48 ATMs. It had opened the world’s first bitcoin ATM and even hosted Quadriga CX Bitcoin Exchange.
With around 74 merchants, the capital city of Netherlands, Amsterdam holds the third position in the list of Bitcoin adoption. Ljubljana, Slovenia, has 51 merchants that recognized Bitcoins as a medium of payment.
Apart from being the vegan hub of Israel, Tel Aviv also holds the tag of having 58 Bitcoin merchants. Zurich, Switzerland, has 64 Bitcoin-accepting merchants.
Tampa, another city of the US, has 93 Bitcoin merchants. This city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has 130 Bitcoin merchants residing in it. This South American country warmly welcomes Bitcoins and a few more cryptocurrencies.
New York, USA, is the home of 122 Bitcoin merchants, with 177 bitcoin ATMs. The 10th position here is of London, UK, with 88 merchants and 74 bitcoin ATMs.
(Source: Investopedia)
49. Bitcoins’ energy sources have the potential to Power a Small Country
Well, as we have seen that bitcoin uses superfluous hardware, and its network surpasses even the biggest supercomputers. A new query arises, though.
How much power is consumed in Bitcoin generation? Well, in simple words, it can easily carry the power load of Switzerland. Mind-boggling, isn’t it?
In a survey of an online tool from Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), it consumes 7 gigawatts of power globally. Over the course of a year, it rounds to about 64 terawatts of power.
This surpasses power consumption of Swiss at 58 TWh, but lesser than Columbia at 68 TWh per year. All these accounts to about 0.25% of the world’s electric energy consumption.
So, other technologies like Ethereum are trying their best to come up with new solutions, more efficient and power saving too.
(Source: Verge)
50. Bitcoin, the Currency of Fortune or of Carbon?
Now that we know how much energy consumption Bitcoin has, it will be much trilling to find how it affects the environment.
Just like its energy consumption, Bitcoin’s carbon footprint is no less. Combined research from TUM, Germany and MIT, USA lead to the assertion that Bitcoin’s carbon footprint is equal to Las Vegas.
As per this report, the Bitcoin Network was responsible for 22-22.9 million tons of CO2/year. An estimate of about 217 Kg CO2 for each transaction was found. This is whooping big and competes with a small developing nation like Sri Lanka.
(Source: Fortune)
Data Source Links
- Buy Bitcoin Worldwide
- Investopedia Top Economies
- Medium
- QZ
- FineExtra
- Forbes
- Blockchain
- Investopedia
- Bitnovotsi
- Fool.com
- Quartz
- The Balance
- Wall Street
- CNBC
- Rhea
- CCN
- Economic Times
- Hacker noon
- CoinDesk
- Fortune
- Bloomberg
- News. Bitcoin
- Ledger
- News. Bitcoin
- 99Bitcoins
- News. Bitcoin
- News. Bitcoin
- CoinDesk
- INC
- CNBC
- CNBC, Hacker Noon
- Blockchain Blog
- 99Bitcoins
- Map Of Coins Medium Crypto Briefing
- Medium
- Reuters
- CCN
- CoinDesk
- The Telegraph
- Ars Technica
- The Fortune
- ICOWatchList
- Medium
- BlockGeeks
- BlockGeeks
- Bitcoin Magazine — Fortune
- Investopedia
- Investopedia
- The Verge
- Fortune