7 Interesting Facts About Bitcoin

Over the last years, Bitcoin has been gaining increasing interest. The coin has become especially popular after the famous rally in 2017 when many Bitcoin holders turned into millionaires. Until now, this is the most popular and most expensive coin.

Whether you are planning to invest in Bitcoin or not, it might be fun for you to read some interesting facts about the king of cryptocurrency. Thus, here they are, the top 7 fun facts about Bitcoin.

22 May Is a Special Day for Bitcoin

Can you guess why 22 May is so special for the coin? Well, maybe the fact that 22 May is called a Bitcoin Pizza Day will give you a hint?

While the coin was launched in 2009, it was not until 2010 when the first payment in Bitcoin was made. Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas purchased in Papa John`s pizzeria. At that time, 10,000 Bitcoins were worth just 41 USD. At the moment of writing, one Bitcoin costs more than 59,000 USD.

Do you think Laszlo Hanyecz has ever regretted wasting such a fortune for just two pizzas? We will never find out.

Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?

The inventor of Bitcoin shall be a famous and no doubt super-rich person. Well, he might be rich but he isn’t famous at all. We still don’t know who Satoshi Nakamoto is nor how he looks nor what he does and even we are not sure whether he exists. All we know about the Bitcoin inventor is that he published the Bitcoin whitepaper under the name of Satoshi Nakomoto.

Some people believe that Satoshi Nakamoto is even not a person but a group of developers. There were even speculations that behind the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola stand. Samsung and Toshiba form the word Satoshi, and Nakamichi with Motorola form the word Nakamoto.

Several scammers tried to earn from this mystery. One of the most successful scammers was Craig Wright. He claimed that he is the mysterious Bitcoin inventor and with his scam Bitcoin cash fork, left many people without their funds.

While the anonymity of the founder might seem strange but for the platform, it definitely has a positive effect considering that the coin is decentralized and not controlled by a person or an authority.

Is Bitcoin as Untraceable as We Used to Believe?

When you make a transaction in Bitcoin, nobody can see your name or other personal information. All that is exposed on the blockchain is your public key, or public address. This information is seen by anybody because the Bitcoin blockchain is transparent. Anybody can download it and see all the transactions.

If somebody knows your public address, the person also can see how many Bitcoins you are sending, receiving, or holding in your wallet.

This feature allowed the FBI to track and arrest the founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. Ross intended to create a billion-dollar online market for drugs and, partly, he managed to do so until he was arrested and sentenced for life.

Private Key Is the Key to Your Bitcoin

Many people believe that they keep their coins in a wallet but this is not correct. All Bitcoins are kept in the blockchain. In a wallet, you keep private keys that prove that a specific coin belongs to you. A private key is a communication means between you and the Blockchain.

What happens if you lose the private keys? With them, you lose access to your coins. Nobody will be able to use them, they will be lost forever.

Do people lose their private keys indeed? Well, yes, for now, approximately 25% of all Bitcoins are lost forever. In some cases, the losses were very significant.

So, in November 2013, James Howells was cleaning his desk and threw away a hard disk where he kept private keys to 7.500 Bitcoins he had mined three years earlier.

Later, he was searching for the hard disk or any opportunity to restore the private keys but with no success. Now, he could have more than $45 million. It is a sad story, and it is not the only case when people under-appreciated their coins.

No Authority Can Ban Bitcoin

There are constant talks about banning cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin cannot be managed by any authority, thus, cannot be banned. As long as you are connected to the internet and have a wallet, you can buy, sell, store Bitcoins on any legal exchange, such as LetsExchange or any other similar services.

However, authorities might ban companies behind online cryptocurrency exchanges. In the majority of cases though, a company solves the issue with the ban by moving to a different country.

From 2008 to 2018, Investors Used to Earn from Bitcoin Consistently

From 2008 to 2018, Bitcoin used to bring profit to the coin holder. Only 2014 was an exception. That was the year when one coin price dropped from 751 USD to a staggering 285 USD. It happened immediately after one of the major exchanges MtGox had been hacked.

Other than that, the Bitcoin value was growing constantly. The price growth fluctuated from 52.8% to 20566% per year. The bullish trend was observed until 2018 when the coin price dropped. In 2019, the constant price growth was re-established.

Bitcoin Mining Is Energy-Consuming

Mining is considered a way to get Bitcoins without buying them. That’s why many people are attracted to mining without knowing which expenditures are connected with it.

First of all, to mine Bitcoin, one needs a miner, special equipment for mining. While some coins can be mined with a GPU or CPU, for Bitcoin mining, ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) are used. They are able to process much more data. With them, the chances that you might verify a transaction in the blockchain increase exponentially. One ASIC might cost you around 500 USD and more.

This is not the only investment you shall consider. If you start mining, be ready that your energy bills increase. Mining is an extremely energy-consuming process. The cost of mining one single coin might vary from around 600 to several thousand dollars depending on the electricity cost in your location and your equipment. The risks that you will not be able to mine even a single coin are high.

To Sum Up

Bitcoin is a coin with an interesting and rich history. Now, when you know some interesting details about BTC, it will not be just a code for you anymore. We are sure that in the future, many more interesting things are to happen, and that this coin has significant potential in the financial world.