Bit Coin
The Top Interesting Bitcoin Facts You Need To Know
1. The first Bitcoin purchase was for pizza.
Initially, when bitcoins were mined they were virtually worthless as it cost literally cents to buy a BTC.
But it was until 22 May 2010, when someone purchased something with bitcoins.
Seven years ago on this day, someone bought Piazzas with bitcoins and this purchase was a big deal because no retailer was accepting bitcoins at that time for goods and services.
On 22 May 2010, two Papa John’s Pizzas were exchanged by Laszlo Hanyecz for 10,000 BTC. This was the first official documented purchase of goods using bitcoins.
At that time, the worth of 10,000 BTC was $41.
At the time of writing this article, the worth of 10,000 BTC is around $25.8 million.
2. The inventor of Bitcoin is a mystery.
Yes, that’s correct! The inventor of Bitcoin is still unknown.
Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009, there have been several speculations about who the father of Bitcoin is.
The Bitcoin whitepaper was made open to the public under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of “Satoshi” is still a mystery yet to be solved.
Amidst this confusion, there are some people like Craig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, who in May 2016 claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. However, this guy, later on, turned out to be just another scammer.
He with his partner tried to pump a forked version of Bitcoin called Bitcoin cash and made a lot of innocent users lose their hard earned money. None the less, he bought a Limbo with all the scam money:
Some even suggest that Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola together created Bitcoin.
“Satoshi Nakamoto”:
Samsung and Toshiba —- Satoshi
Nakamichi and Motorola —- Nakamoto
This anonymity has led to comments like“Bitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme,“ yet this buzz has not stopped BTC from growing.
Because the purpose of Bitcoin is to be a decentralized method of exchanging money, this anonymity is very healthy for the platform.
3. Bitcoin is untraceable & Bitcoin is NOT untraceable.
When making Bitcoin transactions, your name/identity is not used in any form. Only your public address is available.
But…
The Bitcoin blockchain is a permanent ledger which is transparent. If anyone knows your Bitcoin public address, they can see how many bitcoins you hold and what transactions you have made.
It’s how the FBI was able to bust the owner of Silk Road.
If users of Bitcoin want to hide their public address or IP, it can be done by using services like Bitmixer.io or a VPN.
That said, this just makes it difficult to trace; difficult, but not impossible.
4. If you lose your Bitcoin private key, you lose your bitcoins.
James Howells, an IT guy, lost 7,500 bitcoins in November 2013. While he was cleaning his desk at home, he threw away his hard disk containing the private keys of bitcoins which he had mined in 2010.
The realization dawned on him when he read the news of a Norweigan man who made a fortune by buying BTC at a low price.
He searched and searched, but could not find his hard disk.
At present, the worth of 7,500 BTC is approximately $19.4 million.
Without the private key, the funds are lost forever no one can use them.
Until this point in time, it is estimated that around 25% of all bitcoins have been forever lost.
