Editor's Note: This article comes fromInternal reference(ID: lianneican), Author: Internal reference, released with authorization.
Editor's Note: This article comes from
Internal reference
(ID: lianneican), Author: Internal reference, released with authorization.
Anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari writes in Homo sapiens (2011):
Even today's coins and banknotes are a rare form of money. The total amount of money in the world is about $60 trillion, while the total amount of coins and banknotes issued is less than $6 trillion. More than 90 percent of the money -- more than $50 trillion in people's accounts -- exists only on computer servers.
According to CoinMarketCap statistics, there are currently more than 1,700 cryptocurrencies with a total market value of about 290 billion US dollars, of which Bitcoin accounts for about one-third of the market.
The rapid growth and decline of cryptocurrencies, both in volume and price, and the challenges they pose to the current financial infrastructure force all players to pay close attention to and study this new market.
In 2009, Bitcoin was officially released as open source software, and since then has started a grand economic and social experiment. It provides a possibility to return the lifeblood of the market from the government to the market, and provides an endogenous currency for the Internet, promoting economic globalization and networking, and is a new driving force for world economic growth.
At the same time, it promotes the progress of civilization, establishes a currency system that originally requires interpersonal trust through decentralized technologies and mechanisms, and provides ideas and technologies for solving complex organizational problems in other fields (such as property rights, securities, insurance, Notarization, elections, charity, etc.), enabling individuals all over the world to organize more freely.
2008-2010: The market value of BTC exceeded 1 million US dollars in three years
In 2008, the birth of Bitcoin was accompanied by the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, the debt crisis in European countries, and the global economic recession. Bitcoin will be officially issued in the second half of the year.
By 2009, the Bitcoin software was made available to the public for the first time. There are more and more netizens "mining", but the mainstream market has not yet recognized its value, and Bitcoin did not have market value for more than a year before and after its release.
In May 2010, Bitcoin had its first transaction with the real economy, which made it have value attributes, and its initial value was 0.003 US dollars. After Bitcoin generated value, the mining boom continued to rise, and the first Bitcoin exchange, Mt. The exchange rate increased from $0.008/BTC to $0.080/BTC.Subsequently, the momentum of Bitcoin attracted the attention of hackers, exposing a major loophole in the system, but the public's attention to Bitcoin has increased day by day, and portable devices, option contracts, and mining pools have begun to appear one after another. By November, the price of a single bitcoin on Mt.Gox, the world's largest bitcoin trading platform, had exceeded US$0.5, an increase of about 167 times from the initial price, and the market value of bitcoin was US$1 million.2011: The concepts of decentralization and cryptocurrencies catch on
In February 2011, the price of Bitcoin was equal to the U.S. dollar for the first time. After the news was widely reported by the media, it aroused people's attention.
, new users surged
; In April, Bitcoin entered the public view for the first time from a small-scale geek circle, and then various media also successively reported on it.In the two months from April to June 9, the price of Bitcoin broke through $20 and climbed to $31.9, an increase of 3000%, and then fell to 0.013 on June 19 after the theft of a large exchange. Dollar.Since July, the application of Bitcoin has been further expanded, and the price has gradually risen. By August, the first Bitcoin Conference and World Expo was held in New York, and the price of Bitcoin was 11 US dollars. However, in November, Bitcoin plummeted to $2.
In general,Bitcoin experienced a half-year low tide in 2011, and the price fluctuation ratio was relatively high. Bitcoin at this time has also been criticized for being used on the so-called "dark web", especially on illicit trade sites such as Silk Road. There were articles at the time that Bitcoin was a kind of nihilistic anarchism.
At the same time, in this year, as Bitcoin became more and more popular, the concept of decentralization and cryptocurrency became popular,
A few other cryptocurrencies started to emerge. These alternative cryptocurrencies offer greater speed, better anonymity, or some other advantage
Let's try to improve on the original bitcoin design.
2012: Real economy suppliers accept BTC payments
Continuing the decline in 2011, the price of Bitcoin fell below $2 in February 2012, a drop of 1395% from its all-time high in June 2011.
Cryptocurrencies have infiltrated the popular consciousness at this time, including a fictional trial in the third season of the American television series The Good Wife, titled “Bitcoin for Dummies.”
Since June, a number of real economy suppliers have announced that they will accept Bitcoin payments. In July, the bitcoin price recovered to $8.77 as the number of posts on the official forum topped 1 million.
The London Bitcoin Conference in September and the subsequent establishment of the Bitcoin Fund and the first Bitcoin conference in Europe further increased the price of Bitcoin to nearly $13.2013: Bitcoin Policy and Regulation Breakthrough。
However,In January, shortly after Bitcoin fell to $2, Bitcoin rose sharply again. Many new exchanges, new investors and increased media exposure have helped Bitcoin recover quickly. At the same time,The outbreak of the economic crisis in Cyprus has attracted a lot of attention to Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset for the country's economy. Since then, Bitcoin has risen all the way, rising to $260 in April 2013
However,
The April-June outage of the Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox led to immediate profit taking by a large number of traders, and Bitcoin fell again to $40, a drop of 80%
. At the same time, this year's Bitcoin has made rapid progress in terms of policies and regulations.
2014: Cryptocurrency rises in popularity, sparks regulation
At the beginning of 2014, the cryptocurrency was gaining popularity, the number of users was about 10 times that of a year ago, and the largest Bitcoin mining pool was also set. In terms of the real economy, the acceptance of Bitcoin is also getting higher and higher, and many well-known suppliers have announced that they have begun to accept Bitcoin payments.
At the same time, the largest exchange, Mt.Gox, declared bankruptcy, and the price of Bitcoin fell from $600 to $102, a drop of 80%.
also,2015: Blockchain Technology Gains Attention
Bitcoin performed well in 2015, one of the reasons is that the "block chain" technology has made major financial companies more interested in Bitcoin, and its acceptance has gradually increased;
also,
China's stock market was once volatile, and investors used bitcoin to circumvent China's capital controls when capital transfers were restricted, making China another driving force behind bitcoin's surge.
The price of Bitcoin exceeded $300 in early 2015, largely due to the success of a new round of funding from exchange and wallet provider Coinbase.
From March to June, the price of Bitcoin has been fluctuating around $250. By late June, as Greece's debt problems worsened and the Bitcoin community fervently hoped that Greece would follow Cyprus, the price of Bitcoin rose to $300, which can be attributed to the psychological effect of people wanting this trend to happen.
In August, the price fell steeply to $179.35 due to an exchange accident.
Since September, a number of important institutions and governments have successively issued relevant regulations on Bitcoin, and the market’s attention has been concentrated again. Before and after the price of Bitcoin “blowout” again in October, the European Court stipulated that Bitcoin transactions do not need to pay value-added tax .
On November 4, Bitcoin once rose by 20% intraday, and the highest soared to 500 US dollars.2016: The first year of ICO。
2016 is an exciting year for Bitcoin, and there are dozens of Bitcoin exchanges around the world. Affected by factors such as the halving of bitcoin production, Brexit, the US general election, and the strength of the Asian market, the price of bitcoin rebounded and showed a further upward trend.
Among them, the Chinese market accounts for more than 95% of the transaction volume of Bitcoin, and more than 70% of the newly generated Bitcoins are produced in Chinese mines. The Chinese market almost monopolizes the new supply of Bitcoin.The continuous depreciation of the renminbi and foreign exchange controls have brought strong demand to the bitcoin market, and the price of bitcoin has risen.In June, Britain's exit from the European Union caused the pound to plunge, and the price of Bitcoin rose accordingly, an increase of nearly 20%. The exchange theft incident in August caused Bitcoin to crash by about 26% overnight, but then the price rebounded again. In November, the U.S. election results were announced, and uncertainty surrounding Trump's policy proposals further boosted the price of bitcoin, a safe-haven asset.same period,Many governments have demonetized,
serious lack of credibility,
Caused the price of one Bitcoin to return to the height of $1,000, an increase of more than 40%
. In addition, the regulatory levels of various countries have begun to express their attitudes towards Bitcoin and the blockchain. For the blockchain, regulation is not a bad thing, and regulation means "recognition" to a certain extent.
Ethereum also gained momentum in that year. The arrival of the platform marked the emergence of Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Many projects obtained financing through ICO, so 2016 is also known as the first year of ICO.
2017: Cryptocurrency makes historyIn 2017, Bitcoin became one of the most popular speculative products on the market. Throughout 2017, Bitcoin made frequent headlines in the financial media. Its price rose from US$970 at the beginning of the year to nearly US$20,000 in December, an annual increase of 1700%.
As a borderless cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has attracted a wider range of investors with a lot of cash. As of December 2017, the number of physical businesses that accept Bitcoin has reached more than 10,000, and the number of Bitcoin ATMs has increased to 1,986. In addition to Bitcoin, altcoins such as Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dash have also begun to become payment options for some merchants.The lowest price of Bitcoin for the year was $789 on January 11.
In April, Japan introduced new regulations governing bitcoin transactions, granting it status as a payment network.
Bitcoin price increased slowly from January to May.
Bitcoin fell as much as 36% in June and July as news of a Bitcoin fork caused concern in the market.
At the beginning of September, Bitcoin exceeded $4,000, and then on September 4, the People's Bank of China defined ICO as an illegal financial activity and suspended all domestic transactions. This caused a short-term blow to Bitcoin, which fell from $4,800 to $3,491 in the middle and late months of the month, a drop of 28%, and then Bitcoin continued to rise after only a short-term decline. During this period, the price of bitcoin overseas was higher than that in China, and the price difference once reached several thousand yuan.
It rose to $6,000 in October. The release of futures trading and the promotion of well-known news and encyclopedia websites in the financial industry made the price reach $19,800 on December 17. Then it started to plummet.
On December 31, the closing price fell below $11,000. Throughout the second half of 2017, Bitcoin continued to experience a cycle of skyrocketing and plummeting. Even after experiencing the fiery ICO and domestic "one-size-fits-all" regulation during the period, it continued to create historical records.
2018: Regulation promotes the healthy development of cryptocurrencies
The beginning of the Bitcoin price crash in early January 2018 began with the dumping of Bitcoin held by the collapsed Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox. Since then, there have been negative news in the market, and many mainstream social media organizations have banned relevant publicity; many exchanges have been hacked; government supervision has brought hidden worries.
Although governments of various countries have strictly controlled cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology has been recognized by governments in various countries, and many important banks such as UBS, Barclays, Credit Suisse and other banks have tried compliance platforms on Ethereum.
The increase in cryptocurrency prices before 2018 has accumulated a considerable degree of selling, and the correction in 2018 belongs to the process of the market gradually returning to rationality.
