Bitcoin is the most recognizable cryptocurrency. There probably isn’t a single user on the Internet right now who hasn’t heard of it. But do you know Bitcoin well? We are sure that there are things that even crypto enthusiasts who are familiar with the first cryptocurrency have not heard about. Here are 10 facts about bitcoin that you might not know
1. At least 60% of bitcoin addresses are “ghosts”
Bitcoin holders are responsible for their savings and securely store private keys that provide access to bitcoins. If you lose your private key, access to coins will be lost forever. But 5 years ago, only a few people thought about it, because the cryptocurrency cost only $450 at that time. Many people found out that their bitcoins were lost only in 2017, when a real hype began around the crypto market, and the cryptocurrency exchange rate reached almost $20,000.
2. Bitcoin capitalization exceeds the budget of Switzerland
Switzerland’s budget for 2019 was $198 billion. Bitcoin’s capitalization as of the end of September 2020 is $198.5 billion. Also, Bitcoin’s capitalization is superior to the budgets of Austria ($174 billion), Israel ($137 billion) and Finland ($131 billion).
3. Satoshi Nakamoto’s 980,000 bitcoins (BTC)
It is no secret that the creator of Bitcoin is an anonymous user or a group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. His identity is shrouded in mystery, and it has not been revealed. However, we know that the wallet of the Bitcoin creator contains 980,000 Bitcoin (BTC). This is approximately $10.5 billion according to the exchange rate at the time of writing, which makes Satoshi one of the richest people on the planet.
However, so far no bitcoins have been transferred from this bitcoin address. There have been many attempts to prove that this or that person is Satoshi Nakamoto. Among others, the famous Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright and one of the developers of Bitcoin ABC (now BCH) Amaury Sechet were suspected of being Satoshi. But so far, the attempts have not been convincing and we do not know what fate awaits Satoshi Nakamoto’s 980,000 BTC. This amount can bring down the bitcoin exchange rate by more than 50% in an instant.
4. The first bitcoin exchange
Few people know, but the world’s first bitcoin exchange was Bitcoinmarket.com, which was launched in March 2010. The first mention of this domain was on BitcoinTalk.org – the most famous forum dedicated to cryptocurrencies. Yes, the first bitcoin exchange was not BTC-e or even Bitstamp, as many are sure. Back then, you could buy bitcoin for just $0.003, and for $1 you could buy 333 BTC (~3.5 million now).
When trying to open a domain Bitcoinmarket.com the browser sends to Andrew (Drew) Rosener’s Twitter. He is a domain broker and the CEO of Media Options. Now the number of crypto exchanges has exceeded 30,500. And these are only those that were included in the list of the well-known CoinMarketCap resource.
5. Liberland – the country of Bitcoin
In 2015, a new micronation – Liberland – was founded. It is a virtual state on the west bank of the Danube river between Serbia and Croatia, and its official currency is Bitcoin.
6. Bitcoin miners are more powerful than a supercomputer
Summit is a famous supercomputer with a computing power of 122.3 PFLOPS. At the same time, Bitcoin miners can generate as much as 80,704,209 PFLOPS-almost 600,000 times more.
However, the Summit supercomputer requires about 15 MW of electricity, which is equivalent to the consumption of about 8,000 average homes in the United States. And the energy consumption for Bitcoin mining is higher than the consumption of Ireland. More of that later. In addition, Summit performs various tasks, while Bitcoin can only add new blocks to the blockchain.
7. Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than Ireland
Ireland is a european country with an area of about 85,000 square kilometers. But, despite the impressive area, it consumes less electricity than all mining farms combined. Ireland consumes about 5,000 kWh while Bitcoin consumes more than 6,000 KWh. Mining farms also consume more than 20% of the total energy consumed in Ukraine.
8. 9 years ago, Bitcoin was worth $1
In 2011, Bitcoin exchange rate exceeded 1 US dollar for the first time, and has not fallen below this level since. Imagine that 9 years ago for $100 you could buy as many as 100 bitcoins (BTC), which would now cost about $1,050,000. The same year, Bitcoin exchange rate rose to $30, and in 2013 it exceeded the $100 mark. Bitcoin exchange rate has been above $3,000 for more than 3 years.
9. “Bitcoin” is not equal to “bitcoin”
Did you know that there is a significant difference between the terms “Bitcoin” and “bitcoin”? Cryptocurrency is always written with a capital letter at a time as bitcoin is its blockchain. “What’s the difference?” you may ask. The difference is huge: Bitcoin is a digital currency. You can use it to send transactions, and bitcoin only stores transaction records in blocks. In other words, Bitcoin is money, and bitcoin is a bank.
10. $500 million crypto theft
The largest crypto theft occurred in 2018. Unknown hackers stole more than 500 million NEM (XEM) from the hot wallets of the Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck. It became known that hackers are residents of Russia. The cryptocurrency could not be returned, but the crypto exchange reimbursed users for losses in full.
Although Coincheck incident is the largest in terms of value at the time of theft, but in terms of the current rate, the theft of 850,000 BTC from the Mt. Gox crypto exchange is still the leader. At the time, this amount was equivalent to $470 million dollars, but now this amount would be more than $9 billion, and the incident with Mt. Gox would be the largest bitcoin theft in history.
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