In 2009,Satoshi Nakamotofounded the cryptocurrency Bitcoin BTC/USD .Here's alook back at the pseudonymous creator and the price history of the leading cryptocurrency.
What Happened: In October 2008,Nakamotopublished a whitepaper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. It provided many key details and explained why Bitcoin was being created.
In January 2009, Nakamoto mined thegenesis block of Bitcoin, and the first 50 Bitcoins were mined.
When Bitcoin was released, there were only two ways to get the cryptocurrency: You could either mine theBitcoin yourself or usea peer-to-peer transaction. Bitcointalk, a forum created by Nakamoto tohost discussions on Bitcoin,was used for several transactions, which were deemed risky at the time becausethey required trust from both parties that were mostly anonymous.
In October 2009, one of the first ever recognized Bitcoin transactions happened whena Finnish computer science student sold5,050 Bitcoin for $5.02 (which representeda value of $0.0009 for each Bitcoin), according toForbes. The transaction took place on PayPal PYPL .
Less than ayear later, in May 2010, one of the most famous Bitcoin transactions of all-time and what is widely believed to be the first retail transaction took place when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz sought out a person to buy him pizza in exchange for Bitcoin. Aperson in England subsequently spentaround $41 to buy Papa Johns PZZA pizza in exchange for 10,000 Bitcoin.
Ill pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas, like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over the next day, Hanyecz said in the infamousonline post.
Now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day, May 22 pays tribute to the day of that veryfamous Bitcoin transaction. At the time, Bitcoin had a value of around $0.0041.
It wasn't until 2011 and after the launch of several major crypto exchanges that the cryptocurrencyhit a price of $1.
Related Link: How To Buy Bitcoin
Investing $1,000 in Bitcoin: Using the early transactions referenced above, a hypothetical investment in Bitcoin in the early days could have provided quite the return for its holder, or in this case a hodler.
A $1,000 investment in Bitcoin at the time of the first transaction on PayPal would have netted1,111,111.11 Bitcoin, even though that amount of cryptocurrency probably wouldn't have been available due to mining constraints.That$1,000 investment would be worth $30,949,777,746.80 today based on a price of $27,854.80 for Bitcoin at the time of writing.
In contrast, a$1,000 investment in Bitcoin at the time of the Bitcoin-pizza transaction would have netted 243,902.44 BTC. That investment would be worth $6,793,853,685.71 today based on the sameprice of $27,854.80 at the time of writing.
Read Next: 13 Fun Facts You May Not Know About Bitcoin
