
Bitcoin and the blockchain technology that underpins it are often attributed to an unnamed individual or group by Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2009, Nakamoto introduced the blockchain and cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin. Now bitcoin is the most famous cryptocurrency and is available on trading platforms like briansclub.
Blockchain Prior to Bitcoin
Nakamoto is often credited with creating Bitcoin, but the concept of a blockchain dates back far further in history. David Chaum, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley (California), a generation before Nakamoto's white paper, defined a blockchain database in his dissertation, "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups." That was back in 1982, 27 years before Bitcoin was conceived. Even if other decentralized databases existed before Chaum, mentioning his name would guarantee the prize if you were asked who developed blockchain on a game show. When did blockchain first become in use? 1982.
While Chaum's networks weren't built with crypto in mind, the apparent relationship was still there. In 1989, Chaum founded a firm named DigiCash based on his research on blockchain technology. The business unveiled its digital money in 1995; it went by many names at the time, including digicash, eCash, and cyberbucks.
The digital money offered by DigiCash promises to give many of the capabilities of current digital currencies. The corporation highlighted the ability to remain anonymous as a major selling point. The business guarantees that not even the government can see your encrypted eCash transactions. However, Chaum could not win over any financial institutions to back the project, and the lack of a peer-to-peer transaction and exchange-only internet infrastructure ultimately doomed it. As of 1998, DigiCash was insolvent.
History almost repeats itself.
When a study article on the subject surfaced in internet forums in 2008, the development of blockchain technology began to attract serious attention. Known as "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Digital Money System," the paper was written under Satoshi Nakamoto's pseudonym.
According to experts, the blockchain system described in the Nakamoto research paper is identical to that proposed by David Chaum. Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus process, used for verifying data blocks and mining currencies, is the sole notable distinction. Most people still credit Satoshi Nakamoto with developing the blockchain.
In 2008, Nakamoto published the blockchain's source code on SourceForge, inviting programmers from all around the globe to participate in the effort. Coinciding with the introduction of Bitcoin as the first digital currency in January 2009, the first modern blockchain was also introduced.
For a while, it seemed like the Bitcoin project might go the way of DigiCash. More than two years passed before a single Bitcoin was worth the same in symbolic terms as one US dollar. Only in 2017 did one bitcoin cost more than a thousand euros. The value of one bitcoin has been steadily increasing since then while maintaining its notorious volatility.
The Flood of Blockchains
For two years, Bitcoin was the only blockchain and cryptocurrency that mattered. Litecoin and Namecoin, blockchain-based cryptos forks of the Bitcoin project, were published by their teams of developers in 2011. In 2012, a competitor called Peercoin appeared. Five new blockchains appeared the following year, including Dogecoin's first memecoin.
The Ethereum blockchain was launched in 2015 by a group whose members had previously worked on the Bitcoin project. Ether was unique. Other blockchains exclusively existed to back certain digital currencies. To facilitate the deployment of DApps, Ethereum was released. In addition to data, the Ethereum blockchain can also store executable source code, making it the backbone for hundreds of blockchain-based apps. Because of its adaptability, the Ethereum blockchain is well-suited for hosting NFTs and dApps.
Researchers nowadays are actively trying out new implementations of the blockchain protocol. While mainstream blockchains function well under modest loads, they struggle to scale to the point where they can handle massive applications. The processing time has increased from hours to days, and the transaction costs have skyrocketed. To address these issues, several of the latest blockchain implementations use novel approaches.
Consensus techniques, the coordination of parallel subchains, private blockchains, and other technical difficulties are still being investigated and tested. It's rare for a new cryptocurrency to be established to replace government-issued fiat currencies as a whole. These days, many blockchain applications have nothing to do with virtual money. Changes to the original blockchain design may be useful for some of these uses.
Even if governments throughout the globe were to pass laws making the cryptocurrency market illegal, blockchains like these would still serve vital purposes in industries like healthcare, identity management, supply chain management, entertainment, and more. Technology based on the blockchain protocol is here to stay.
If you are interested in investing in bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, you should go to briansclub.