On the afternoon of January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block of Bitcoin, known as the Genesis Block, on a small server located in Helsinki, Finland, and received the first reward of 50 bitcoins. With the arrival of 2024, this also means that the Bitcoin Genesis Block will celebrate its 15th anniversary!
Bitcoin Genesis Block’s 15th Anniversary
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Today (January 3) marks the 15th anniversary of the birth of Bitcoin. The Genesis Block of Bitcoin, also known as Block 0, is the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain. It was mined by the legendary and mysterious founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, on January 3, 2009, and received the first reward of 50 bitcoins.
At that time, Satoshi Nakamoto left a sentence on the block: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” symbolizing the decentralized ideology behind the creation of Bitcoin. This transaction in the Genesis Block will forever remain, and the original intention of Bitcoin’s birth is deeply imprinted in everyone’s hearts.
Bitcoin’s Original Block
In addition, it is little known that the Genesis Block was self-generated by Satoshi Nakamoto, and Block #1 is the first block generated through mining. However, based on the timestamp, it took Satoshi Nakamoto six days to mine Block #1, not the familiar ten minutes.
From January 3 to January 9, it took a full six days to mine Block #1, echoing the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis, which took six days. At that time, Bitcoin was still in its early stages, and many engineers who were moved by the concepts proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto continued to develop and improve the Bitcoin network, taking firm steps in the right direction.
Bitcoin Genesis Block
In July 2010, MT.Gox opened the first Bitcoin exchange, with the price of each bitcoin at around $0.08. The first bull market started in September 2010 and lasted for 9 months. Bitcoin rose from $0.06 to $36, then quickly dropped to $2.5, a 93% decline.
Many people criticized at the time, “Bitcoin will be a bubble.” However, it never dropped below $2 and has experienced multiple bull and bear markets, even reaching a historical high price of $69,044.77 in 2021.
In 2022, the cryptocurrency market experienced severe turbulence. The collapse of Terra (LUNA) triggered a chain reaction in the market, resulting in a significant decline in the overall cryptocurrency market value. Well-known cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) filed for bankruptcy due to significant losses, and FTX Exchange exposed insufficient funds, causing panic withdrawals and ultimately filing for bankruptcy.
Looking back at 2023, cryptocurrency market investors slowly recovered from the collapse of FTX. The Bitcoin ecosystem also witnessed the emergence of the disruptive Ordinals protocol, and the price of Bitcoin saw a 173% increase, breaking through the $45,000 mark from $16,600.
With numerous developers and believers joining the cryptocurrency market, the current environment is completely different from 15 years ago. According to Glassnode data, the number of non-zero addresses on the Bitcoin network has surpassed the 50 million mark.
In the first month of 2024, there is a high probability that the cryptocurrency market will welcome the first Bitcoin spot ETF. Major asset management giants such as BlackRock, VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, Bitwise Investment Advisers, Invesco, Fidelity, WisdomTree Investments, and the joint venture of Ark/21Shares have submitted newly revised applications to the SEC. The next two weeks will be a historic and critical moment.
Looking back on the past 15 years, is Bitcoin still a bubble? Jan Van Eck, CEO of VanEck, gave an optimistic response in a CNBC interview last December.
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