How bitcoin grew up and became big money!

Depending on how you count its birth, bitcoin turned 10 years old today. The first lines of code were committed to the bitcoin blockchain on January 3rd, 2009, a few months after the publication of the original whitepaper. These lines of code, known as the “genesis block,” are credited to the person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
On January 12th, Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoin to Hal Finney, and a new finance counterculture was born. At this point, the bitcoin’s worth was negligible. Users essentially gave each other bitcoins as rewards for good comments in forums. The first “real” transaction took place on May 22nd, 2010. Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin, or about $30. (At current prices, 10,000 bitcoin would be worth $38 million. I hope that pizza was tasty.)

For most of its life, bitcoin drew from three main overlapping communities: the small community of original investors and true believers, the blockchain technology aficionados, and the speculators who are just here to make some money, ma’am. Lately, another community has emerged: old-fashioned stodgy finance types.

Originally, bitcoin was money with a philosophy: instead of a central bank, it had programming and Nakamoto’s whitepaper, both of which suggested skepticism about ordinary financial institutions. But Nakamoto vanished. As the digital currency took off, the system that was supposed to work without trust developed trust issues. And as the bitcoin’s price has risen, it’s become another investment vehicle for the financial system it was meant to replace. 10 years later, bitcoin is part of the system it was meant to overthrow.