7th Year Anniversity of Bitcoin

[cruelsister]

If you bought $100 of bitcoin 7 years ago, you'd be sitting on $75 million now

If you bought $100 of bitcoin 7 years ago, you'd be sitting on $75 million now


Monday marks the seven-year anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day – the moment a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 bitcoin on two Papa John's pizzas.

More important than the episode being widely recognized as the first transaction using the cryptocurrency is what it tells us about the bitcoin rally that saw it break through the $2,100 mark on Monday.

Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) was trading as high as $2,185.89 in the early hours of Monday morning, hitting a fresh record high, after first powering through the $2,000 barrier over the weekend, according to CoinDesk data.

On May 22, 2010, Hanyecz asked a fellow enthusiast on a bitcoin forum to accept 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa John's Pizzas. At the time, Hanyecz believed that the coins he had "mined" on his computer were worth around 0.003 cents each.

Bitcoin mining involves solving a complex mathematical solution with the miner being rewarded in bitcoin. This is how Hanyecz got his initial coins.

The cryptocurrency has many doubters as it continues to be associated with criminal activity, but it has still seen a stunning rally. Here are two facts, on Bitcoin Pizza Day, however, that highlight this:

While being worth $30 at the time, Hanyecz pizzas would now cost $21.8 million at current bitcoin prices
If you bought $100 of bitcoin at the 0.003 cent price on May 22, 2010, you'd now be sitting on around $72.9 million

A number of factors have been driving the rally:

Recently passed legislation in Japan that allows retailers to start accepting bitcoin as a legal currency has boosted trading in yen, which now accounts for over 40 percent of all bitcoin trade
Political uncertainty globally has driven demand for bitcoin as a safe haven asset
A debate within the bitcoin community about the future of the underlying technology behind bitcoin known as the blockchain has been taking place. There was fear at one point this could lead to the creation of two separate cryptocurrencies but those worries have largely subsided with an alternative, more palatable option now being put forward.

 

[Arin]

how and where to buy bitcoins?

 

[omidomi]

happy birthday bitcoin

 

[cruelsister]

Don't buy them now- there may be what we in the finance field call a "Bubble". Wait for a pullback. But to answer your question, a place called Coinbase is the largest Bitcoin broker in the world with something like 6 billion USD exchanged. But there may be an issue as only select countries (like 32) are supported. A list of these countries here:

Coinbase Supported Countries

If you live in India, Indiacoin is your best bet.

 

[Dean Winchestere]

I wouldn't buy bitcoin now, but Ether is a good prospect. The big banks are starting to use ether and other blockchain for internal transactions. I wouldn't recommend against shorting BTC in Gdax though. =)

 

[Deletedmessiah]

I wish I had bought 100$ bitcoins 7 years ago.

 

[Janl1992l]

I bought some years ago. Still 47 Bitcoins left and im not selling them anytime soon. I wished i had buyed much more this time i knowed they would "explode" but had no money back than. Im pretty sure in the future there will be a much higher price for it. Needed them for some privat stuff and only selld 3 bitcoins like 5 years ago. Gues i have some money left online

 

[ahity]

Happy birthday Bitcoin... after all im not invest to bitcoin 4 years ago

 

[509322]

Take your $75 million in bitcoin and just try to convert them all into $75 million in cash. Little to no liquidity for higher dollar amounts - meaning anything more than a few thousand dollars.

Eventually bitcoin - if it is permitted to exist long term - is going to be heavily regulated. Do you think governments aren't going to take a piece of the bitcoin pie ? Silly rabbit... as long as governments can make a boat-load of fees or taxes off of bitcoin it will be allowed to develop.

The U.S. government's policy is "Wait-and-See," but the Justice department's sharks have been circling bitcoin for at least the past 5 years.

 

[cruelsister]

You could always buy loads and loads of Turnkey ransomware on the DarkNet with them, betcha, betcha...

(actually now you could just buy Yen, then convert to dollars. I could do it for you for a slight Piece of the Action).

 

[Myriad]

Anyone looking for an exciting bit of speculation in crypto-currencies should forget about Bitcoin right now , IMO .

@cruelsister Yep , and that bubble is being maintained by a whole lot of hot air

It's worth having a serious look at Monero and zcash , and their historic values .
These are currencies where folks can still get in on the ground floor , with a relatively small investment ,
or gamble .... however you want to view it .

And if you are concerned about the privacy of your transactions , there are some major implementation differences
compared to Bitcoin.

Monero uses an " opaque blockchain " , and zcash doesn't use one at all !
It uses the zero-knowledge concept for proof of ownership .

Fascinating times I think ..... and a way better bet than online poker , lotteries , stocks and shares etc

 

[Winter Soldier]

I don't know why but when I read "bitcoins", the first thing that comes to my mind is...ransomware

 

[askmark]

Let's just hope Wikileaks doesn't release details of the CIA's super secret Bitcoin destabilistation malware, Bitkill (no one was feeling particularly creative that day), which targets the online trading sites and makes the currency worthless overnight. It could happen

 

[mekelek]

so many wikipedia bitcoin experts in this thread

 

[Entreri]

Giant bubble I think.

There are so many of these cryptocurrencies being created.

 

[tryfon]

Unfortunately I was going to buy Bitcoins about 6 years ago but decided against it. I regret this decision very much...