Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009
On 3 January 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’
Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009
On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’
Reuters
Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time
On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins – the equivalent of $90 million at today’s prices
Lazlo Hanyecz
Silk Road opens for business
Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin
The first bitcoin ATM appears
On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash
REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis
The fall of MtGox
The world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customer’s bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed
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Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up
In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim
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Bitcoin’s big split
On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash
REUTERS
Bitcoin’s price skyrockets
Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year
Reuters
