This article sorts out the "major events" of Bitcoin from the aspects of technology, community, ecology, supervision and risk aversion. Let’s review the past together to draw lessons from tomorrow.
Time passes and the past is hard to return to. From the birth of the initial white paper to the successful completion of the third halving, Bitcoin has spanned more than ten years. During this period, a lot of things happened around Bitcoin, including countless small things that you and I have experienced, and many big things that we have not participated in. This article will sort out the "major events" of Bitcoin from the aspects of technology, community, ecology, supervision and risk aversion, and review the past together as a lesson for tomorrow.
Source: QKL123
1. Major technological development events
(1) On November 1, 2008, the Bitcoin white paper was released, and Satoshi Nakamoto pioneered the "blockchain".
From the 1970s to the 1990s, research on decentralized currency has appeared, but most of it is in the theoretical stage. After ten years of implementation, there were no successful cases. Until November 1, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto (pseudonym) published the paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", which gathered the culmination of previous research work and used "blockchain" as the underlying technology for the first time, making it possible to Centralized currency systems are becoming a reality.
(2) In January 2009, the Bitcoin genesis block was mined and the first client went online.
On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Bitcoin genesis block using a Pentium IV CPU computer. Six days later, the first version of Bitcoin’s open source client v0.1 was released, marking the official launch of the Bitcoin network system. The client is a Windows program, written in Visual Studio and C++, hosted open source on SourceForge, allowing anyone to download and participate.
(3) On July 18, 2010, GPU mining was implemented for the first time, and CPU Bitcoin mining was facing elimination.
As early as the end of 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto had anticipated the emergence of the GPU arms race and hoped to postpone it appropriately to provide a fairer mining environment and make it easier to acquire new participants. But as the price of Bitcoin continued to double from $0.008, miners began to think of ways to increase the computing power of and . On July 18, 2010, a miner named ArtForz successfully used the OpenCL framework to achieve the first GPU mining. mine. Faced with the super computing power of GPU, CPU Bitcoin mining machines lost their competitiveness and were quickly eliminated by the market.
(4) On August 15, 2010, hackers exploited a vulnerability to create hundreds of billions of Bitcoins, and Satoshi Nakamoto was forced to do the first hard fork.
The early Bitcoin code was completed by Satoshi Nakamoto, but there were many bugs in the code. On August 15, 2010, hackers exploited the large integer overflow vulnerability to launch an attack on Bitcoin, breaking the limited setting of the total number of Bitcoins and creating 184.467 billion Bitcoins out of thin air. In order to save Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto was forced to initiate a hard fork and start the reorganization of the block.
(5) On April 28, 2011, the officially recorded version v0.3.21 was released, and Bitcoin began to be available to ordinary users. The
Bitcoin v0.3.21 version is the first officially recorded version. This version has made two important improvements: First, it supports the smallest unit "Satoshi" (1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 Bitcoin), while before this the smallest unit was 0.01 Bitcoin; the second is to support uPNP, allowing ordinary users to participate in the P2P network, which was basically a plaything for technicians before. Although this version is rudimentary, it marks the beginning of Bitcoin becoming available to ordinary users.
(6) On May 20, 2011, FPGA Bitcoin mining hardware was used and GPU mining machines faced elimination.
In February 2011, the price of Bitcoin exceeded $1 and continued to rise in the following months. On May 20, catalyzed by interests, FPGA mining hardware was introduced. A computer can only work with very little GPU, but can run tons of FPGA mining. Since then, Bitcoin GPU mining machines and CPU mining machines have had a similar fate and have been gradually eliminated.
(7) On January 1, 2013, the ASIC Avalon mining machine came out, and the rise of dedicated mining machines.
"Butterfly Lab", an institution specializing in the development of Bitcoin mining machines, began to develop an ASIC mining machine that was far superior to FPGA mining machines in June 2012, but the project was delayed. On January 1, 2013, Zhang Nangeng, who dropped out of Beihang University, successfully developed the world's first ASIC mining machine and named it Avalon.Compared with FPGA mining machines, Bitcoin ASIC mining machines are specifically designed to calculate the HASH value of the SHA256 algorithm and are the best in the computing power competition.
(8) In February 2013, the client version v0.80 was released, taking an important step towards the original idea.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision was to make Bitcoin a peer-to-peer cash system. However, previous versions were not able to support large-scale transactions across the entire network. In February 2013, client v0.80 was released, which is regarded as the most important version in the history of Bitcoin. This version improves node internal management and network communication, enabling Bitcoin to support large-scale P2P networks. However, that version contained a critical vulnerability that, although later fixed, triggered a significant price drop.
(9) On August 24, 2017, Segregated Witness was successfully activated, and the battle for Bitcoin expansion is coming to an end.
Focusing on issues such as the increasing congestion and development direction of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin community already had an expansion dispute in the second half of 2015, and then gradually divided into those who advocated large block expansion and those who opposed it. On August 24, 2017, Segregated Witness was successfully activated at block height 481824. After the successful activation of Segregated Witness, the birth of BCH in the previous fork, and the final abandonment of SegWit2X, the two-year block expansion battle ended.
(10) In March 2018, the Lightning Network was launched on the Bitcoin mainnet and began to enter the Bitcoin 2.0 era. As one of the expansion solutions of Bitcoin Layer 2,
Lightning Network can increase the speed of transaction settlement and enhance the payment function of Bitcoin. However, there are still many technical difficulties in the implementation of Lightning Network applications, and continuous improvement and iteration are needed. As of May 2020, Schnorr/Taproot privacy technology, PayJoin payment protocol and Miniscript programming language are still under development, and the road to Bitcoin 2.0 is still long.
2. Major community development events
(1) January 12, 2009, the first transfer of Bitcoin, and the person closest to Satoshi Nakamoto.
On January 12, 2019, the first Bitcoin transfer occurred at block height 181. Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 Bitcoins to Hal Finney. Hal Finney is considered to be the person closest to Satoshi Nakamoto, but unfortunately, he died on August 28, 2014 (at the age of 58) due to ALS. Afterwards, according to his last wish, his body was donated and frozen in a liquid nitrogen container.
(2) On December 12, 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto posted for the last time.
In 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto began to fade away and hand over the project to other members of the Bitcoin community. On December 12, Satoshi Nakamoto published his last post in the Bitcoin forum (bitcointalk.org), mentioning some minor problems in the latest version of the software, and email communications gradually ceased. On April 23, 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent his last email, leaving this sentence: "I have started to do other things. Gavin and others will take over the Bitcoin project well." After that, he disappeared.
(3) On December 16, 2010, the world's first mining pool SlushPool dug out blocks.
On December 16, 2010, a group of miners dug out the first block in the mining pool SlushPool, marking the emergence of a professional division of labor in the mining pool. Based on the amount of work contributed by mining, each miner receives a corresponding share of the reward. After that, the cooperative mining model of mining pools began to gradually replace individual mining behavior with its computing power advantages.
(4) On April 18, 2011, the first altcoin Namecoin was released, starting a wave of improvements around Bitcoin.
As awareness of Bitcoin increased, many ideas in the community began to be put into practice, and the first altcoin, Namecoin, appeared. Namecoin aims to be a decentralized domain name registration system. After forking the Bitcoin code, some modifications were made to it. Soon after, a large number of similar projects appeared, most of which were dedicated to improving the design of the Bitcoin payment system, such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, Futurecoin, Infinitecoin, Primecoin, etc.
(5) On June 15, 2011, WikiLeaks announced that it would accept "Bitcoin" anonymous donations.
On June 15, 2011, WikiLeaks announced on Twitter that it would accept Bitcoin as anonymous donations and received a donation of 435 BTC (approximately more than 5,000 US dollars) in the past day.However, Satoshi Nakamoto expressed firm opposition (in December 2010), arguing that “Bitcoin is still a small-scale community experiment in its infancy and cannot withstand conflict and controversy; the project needs to grow gradually so that the software can grow along the way. Stay strong; WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest and the swarm is heading our way." However, the Bitcoin community is very vocal, which is probably an important reason why Satoshi Nakamoto later "disappeared".
(6) On September 27, 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation was established, a non-profit organization from well-known to infamous.
In order to standardize and promote the development of Bitcoin, a non-profit organization Bitcoin Foundation was established on September 27, 2012. At the beginning of its establishment, it attracted many members of the Bitcoin community including developers, and part of the funds was used to support Bitcoin ecological construction and technology development. However, many board members have been involved in scandals, especially the Mt.Gox incident, which has made the Bitcoin Foundation infamous. Charles Schrem, Mark Karpeles and Brock Pierce have resigned one after another. Coupled with the lack of transparency in the foundation's operations and other issues, the credibility of the Bitcoin Foundation has gradually lost.
(7) On July 29, 2013, the first ICO project was launched, kicking off the ICO boom.
Mastercoin (later renamed Omni) is committed to creating various smart contracts on top of the Bitcoin protocol to realize functions such as asset trading and asset issuance. The project started crowdfunding at the end of July 2013, with an exchange ratio of 1BTC:100MSC, and a total of 5,120 Bitcoins were raised, worth approximately US$500,000. After the release of MSC, the price soared, reaching a maximum of 0.24 BTC/MSC. In less than a year, Ethereum started crowdfunding, and later created universal standards such as ERC20, which brought about the ICO boom that started in 2016.
(8) On January 14, 2016, the core developers declared that Bitcoin had failed and left the market.
Mike is a senior Bitcoin developer. He was an expansion fan and worked with Gavin to promote Bitcoin XT (the project supports the rapid expansion route in the region). However, faced with issues such as Bitcoin’s development rights, community voice, and concentration of miners’ computing power, Mike issued a post declaring that Bitcoin was finished, selling Bitcoin and leaving the community completely. This was later seen as a victim of the expansion dispute, but it caused a big impact on the Bitcoin community at the time.
(9) On May 2, 2016, Craig S. Wright publicly stated that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, and the “real and fake Satoshi Nakamoto” who had the greatest impact on the community emerged.
On May 2, 2016, Craig S. Wright publicly claimed that he was Satoshi Nakamoto in an interview with the BBC. There are many fake Satoshi Nakamotos, but this persister actually gained the trust of Satoshi Nakamoto’s successor, Gavin Andresen, which caused a sensation in the entire community. However, Craig S. Wright did not provide sufficient evidence to prove himself, and voices of doubt and revelations resounded throughout the community. Chief developer Gavin Andresen was also implicated, and later quit the Bitcoin development team Bitcoin Core due to the expansion dispute. Contrary to Satoshi Nakamoto's deliberate retreat in the early days, Craig S. Wright actually fought for control of Bitcoin. After BTC forked BCH, he forked BSV from BCH. To this day, who is Satoshi Nakamoto seems to be irrelevant to the Bitcoin community.
(10) On August 1, 2017, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was born, and the Bitcoin community officially split.
Since 2015, Gavin Andresen and others have advocated large block expansion, while the Bitcoin Core team has advocated the "Segregated Witness + Lightning Network" expansion plan. After that, the community gradually divided into two opposing factions, and the two sides continued to compromise and struggle, which finally evolved into a split in the community. BCH was hard forked before Segregated Witness was activated. The Bitcoin community experienced an unprecedented split, and the battle for expansion was coming to an end.
3. Major events in the payment ecosystem
(1) On October 12, 2009, the first recorded Bitcoin-to-USD transaction was made.
On October 5, 2009, the website "New Liberty Standard" launched an exchange service between Bitcoin and the US dollar, and released the first Bitcoin-USD exchange rate. Calculated based on the electricity consumption of computer mining, the price is 1309.03 BTC per US dollar. On October 12, Bitcoin forum user NewLibertyStandard paid US$5.02 to Bitcoin developer Sirius through PayPal and obtained 5,050 BTC, becoming the first recorded Bitcoin-to-USD transaction in history.
(2) On May 22, 2010, the first Bitcoin commodity transaction was 10,000 Bitcoins in exchange for a $25 pizza coupon.
On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyeczlaszlo, a programmer from Florida, USA, prepared to sell 10,000 Bitcoins on the BitcoinTalk forum, asking for $50, but no one was willing to make a deal. Later, someone used a $25 pizza coupon to complete the redemption. This was the first time that Bitcoin was used to purchase goods in the real world. This day was later called "Bitcoin Pizza Day" by the community.
(3) On June 29, 2011, BitPay launched its first smartphone wallet.
Bitcoin payment processor BitPay Inc. launched on June 29, 2011, the first Bitcoin e-wallet for smartphones. On July 6 of the same year, the first Android application Bitcoin Digital Wallet App was launched, which was developed by Brandon Iles. Brandon Iles mentioned at the time, “Bitcoin currently attracts mostly computer geeks, but the possibility of using it among friends will increase. It also has certain advantages for credit card companies because there are no fees for Bitcoin transactions. ".
(4) On November 10, 2011, the first Bitcoin POS machine (sales terminal) was successfully developed.
The world's first Bitcoin POS machine (sales terminal) was successfully developed on November 10, 2011. The device consists of a 128×64 pixel backlit monochrome display, a receipt printer and a keyboard, and requires an Internet connection to use. In addition, it also includes a USB interface that can be connected to QR barcode scanning. At present, the new generation of Bitcoin POS machines has got rid of Internet restrictions and can help customers complete Bitcoin payments through technologies such as Bluetooth or NFC. It is estimated that by 2021, there will be more than 100,000 crypto-asset POS machines worldwide.
(5) On October 1, 2013, the founder of the “Silk Road” was arrested and 174,000 Bitcoins were confiscated.
"Silk Road" was created in February 2011 by Ross Ulbricht (account name "DreadPirate Roberts"). Taking advantage of the convenience provided by the anonymous network, the "Silk Road" gathered a large number of illegal transactions in less than half a year, and Bitcoin was used as the "official currency" in an attempt to evade legal sanctions. In June 2011, U.S. agents began investigating the Silk Road. On October 1, 2013, Ross Ulbricht was arrested at a public library in San Francisco, and Silk Road 1.0 was subsequently blocked by the FBI. Approximately 30,000 Bitcoins held by Silk Road were seized, while 144,000 Bitcoins held by Ross Ulbricht personally were also confiscated.
(6) On October 29, 2013, the first Bitcoin ATM machine was put into use in Vancouver.
On October 29, 2013, Bitcoiniacs, a Bitcoin trading company founded by three Canadian high school students, officially opened the world's first Bitcoin ATM machine. The first Bitcoin ATM machine was placed in front of a cafe in downtown Vancouver, Canada, and this cafe gathered many Bitcoin enthusiasts. The device is manufactured by Robocoin Company in Nevada, USA, and can realize the mutual exchange between Bitcoin and fiat currency . Since then, the emergence of Bitcoin ATM machines has increased the popularity and promotion of Bitcoin. According to Coin ATM Radar statistics, as of May 2020, there are a total of 7,861 crypto-asset ATM machines in 73 countries or regions around the world. Among them, Bitcoin ATMs are the main ones, and most of them are distributed in the United States (5,893 units).
(7) On July 18, 2014, American IT giant Dell announced that it would accept Bitcoin payment.
In 2014, many large companies announced support for Bitcoin payments, with Dell becoming the largest and most influential retailer at the time. At the time, Dell partnered with third-party payments company Coinbase, which was responsible for converting Bitcoin into U.S. dollars. On July 18, Dell announced that it will provide Bitcoin payment options, and users can use Bitcoin to purchase products and services. At the same time, Dell also announced a computer promotion: you can enjoy a 10% discount on Alienware computers purchased with Bitcoin, up to a maximum discount of $150. With the penetration of Bitcoin, the support of giant companies has promoted the adoption of Bitcoin. However, due to issues such as regulation and congestion, many companies have stopped using Bitcoin payments.
(8) On June 18, 2019, social network giant Facebook released the Libra white paper.
With the rapid development of crypto-assets in the payment and financial fields, many companies have seen opportunities and challenges. Among them, Facebook’s Libra project has sounded the alarm to the world.As an Internet giant with 2.7 billion active users worldwide, Facebook attracted worldwide attention after releasing the Libra white paper in June 2019. However, the package of super-sovereign currencies that the Libra project intends to issue has been strongly resisted by some developed countries. In order to meet regulatory needs, Libra was forced to redesign and launch version 2.0 in 2020.
(9) On August 10, 2019, the central bank’s digital currency DC/EP was “ready to come out.”
In August 2019, Mu Changchun, the former deputy director of the Central Bank’s Payment and Settlement Department, revealed that the central bank’s digital currency DC/EP has been in progress for five years and is now “ready to come out.” The advancement of central bank digital currencies such as DC/EP, which is "about to be launched", marks the beginning of the "Three Kingdoms Era" in the field of digital currency. At the end of 2019, the top-level design of the central bank’s digital currency DC/EP, a two-tier operation “banknote version”, was basically completed and began to enter optimization pilot verification. As of April 2020, the DC/EP central bank digital currency has entered the internal pilot testing stage.
4. Major events in the trading ecosystem
(1) In March 2010, the world’s first Bitcoin trading platform appeared.
In January 2010, BitcoinTalk user dwdollar claimed that he was building a trading platform that could provide Bitcoin buying and selling services. In March of that year, the trading platform Bitcoin Market was launched and accepted Paypal as a payment channel. However, this trading platform is full of bugs and often needs to be fixed. Coupled with the gradual increase in scammers, Bitcoin Market was forced to withdraw Paypal payments. Subsequently, the transaction volume shrank significantly and eventually closed down. In July of the same year, Mt.Gox went online and within a month became the platform with the largest transaction amount at that time.
(2) On October 16, 2010, the first custody transaction was made, and Bitcoin transactions entered the fast lane.
On October 16, 2010, Bitcoin Forum members Diablo-D3 and Nanotube conducted the first recorded custody transaction, and the custodian was theymos. Escrow trading brings Bitcoin trading into the fast lane.
(3) On March 27, 2011, GBP/Bitcoin trading was opened, and legal currency exchanges have been gradually opened since then.
On March 27, 2011, the Bitcoin trading platform Britcoin went online and opened GBP/Bitcoin trading. Subsequently, trading platforms such as Bitcoin Brazil and BitMarket.eu opened legal currency transactions, significantly lowering the threshold for Bitcoin transactions.
(4) On February 24, 2014, Mt.Gox, the largest trading platform at the time, stopped serving due to being hacked.
As early as June 2011, hackers obtained the administrator rights of Mt.Gox by stealing the database and created false sales orders. Afterwards, the database was leaked again, and hackers broke into online wallets through database information and stole 4,019 Bitcoins from more than 600 wallet addresses. On February 24, 2014, amid criticism from the Bitcoin community, the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox announced its closure. Mt. Gox claims that more than 850,000 Bitcoins owned by users and owned by them have been stolen over the past few years, resulting in losses of US$450 million. The world's largest Bitcoin trading platform was stolen and closed down, triggering a waterfall decline in Bitcoin.
(5) On March 27, 2015, the Bitcoin Investment Trust was approved.
Grayscale Investments is a crypto asset management company that serves mainly institutional investors. After launching Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) in September 2013, it was officially approved in March 2015. At present, Grayscale Investment Trust has expanded to nine categories, including BCH, ETH, XRP, ETC, XLM, LTC, ZEC, ZEN, etc. Among them, most of the targets were added during 2018. As of May 2020, the scale of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Fund has reached US$2.2 billion, making it the world's largest Bitcoin investment trust fund.
(6) On August 4, 2016, Bitfinex, one of the largest trading platforms at the time, was stolen.
Bitfinex, a long-established exchange headquartered in Hong Kong, was established in December 2012. It initially provided a Bitcoin P2P margin lending platform as its core service, and later added encrypted asset trading services. In May 2015, 1,500 Bitcoins were stolen due to hackers. On August 4, 2016, Bitfinex was hacked again, and nearly 120,000 Bitcoins were stolen, with a total value of approximately US$72 million. Afterwards, Bitfinex issued an announcement stating that customers would share the losses caused by the hacking incident equally and issue "IOU" tokens to compensate customers for their losses.
(7) On September 13, 2017, the first licensed crypto asset trading platform appeared in Japan.
Japan’s “Payment Services Act” officially came into effect on April 1, 2017. In addition to recognizing that Bitcoin can be used as a means of payment, it also requires domestic Bitcoin trading platforms to obtain authorization from the Ministry of Finance and the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA). On September 13, 2017, Coincheck announced that it had obtained a license from the FSA and became the first licensed crypto asset trading platform in Japan.
(8) In December 2017, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) launched Bitcoin futures .
On December 11, 2017, CBOE Bitcoin futures were officially launched for trading, followed by CME on the 18th. The launch of Bitcoin futures on traditional exchanges marks the entry of institutional investors and traditional investors. However, CBOE Bitcoin futures ceased trading on June 19, 2019, after operating dismally for more than a year. Although CBOE Bitcoin futures were closed, in September of the same year, Bakkt physical delivery Bitcoin futures, owned by the parent company of New York Stock Exchange , was officially launched, and at the end of 2019, it took the lead in launching Bitcoin options products on CME.
(9) In November 2018, Switzerland approved the first crypto-asset ETP.
Switzerland’s regulatory policies on crypto assets are at the forefront of the world. In November 2018, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) approved the first crypto-asset ETP (ETF-like trading fund). The Amun Crypto ETP was applied for by startup Amun AG and tracks five cryptoassets: Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. After that, Bitcoin ETP was also listed on many stock exchanges such as Germany. In early 2020, Amun’s inverse Bitcoin ETP (which allows shorting) went live on the Swiss stock exchange SIX.
5. Major regulatory events in various countries
(1) On October 15, 2012, the Bitcoin stock trading platform GLBSE was closed due to policy reasons.
GLBSE is a Bitcoin stock trading platform located in the United Kingdom. Mining companies Asic, Giga-mining, etc. sell stocks on this platform, use investors' money to buy equipment and pay dividends to shareholders. In October 2012, GLBSE’s Bitcoin trading volume was equivalent to that of Mt. Gox at that time, but it was forced to close due to accusations of money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal activities. GLBSE was forced to close due to regulatory issues, marking that the crypto-asset industry has officially entered the regulatory horizon.
(2) On December 6, 2012, the first European regulated Bitcoin trading platform appeared.
Bitcoin Central, a Bitcoin trading platform headquartered in France, was established on December 29, 2010. On December 6, 2012, Bitcoin Central became the first Bitcoin trading platform operating under the EU regulatory framework, providing protection for users' fiat currency deposits. However, due to insufficient users to maintain operations, the trading platform was eventually shut down.
(3) On July 30, 2013, Thailand set a precedent for banning Bitcoin and declared it illegal.
Due to the lack of applicable legal and capital controls, coupled with the fact that Bitcoin spans multiple financial businesses. On July 30, 2013, Thailand considered Bitcoin-related activities illegal. Behaviors that may be defined as illegal include: buying and selling Bitcoin, using Bitcoin to buy or sell any goods or services, and Bitcoin transactions with outside Thailand. As the Bank of Thailand banned Bitcoin, Thai Bitcoin startup Bitcoin Co subsequently stopped all related business.
(4) In August 2013, Germany became the first country to officially recognize the legal status of Bitcoin.
In August 2013, the German Ministry of Finance responded to an inquiry from Frank Schaeffler, a member of the parliamentary finance committee. Germany recognized the legal and tax status of Bitcoin, classifying Bitcoin as a "legal unit of account" and "private funds", that is: Bitcoin related to business interests will be taxed, but Bitcoin for personal use is tax-free . Germany has become the first country in the world to officially recognize the legal status of Bitcoin.
(5) On February 7, 2014, Russia announced a complete ban on Bitcoin.
On February 7, 2014, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office issued a statement announcing that Bitcoin may not be used in Russia. On August 1 of the same year, the Russian Ministry of Finance drafted a bill to ban Bitcoin. However, in November 2016, the Russian Federal Tax Service announced that Bitcoin was “not illegal.”To this day, Russia’s legality of Bitcoin has been controversial, and officials have not given clear regulations.
(6) On June 3, 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services released a regulatory framework for crypto asset companies.
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released the BitLicense regulatory framework in June 2015, becoming the first state in the United States to officially launch customized supervision of crypto assets such as Bitcoin, setting a regulatory benchmark for other countries or regions. Subsequently, the United States, Washington State, , Japan, etc. also launched similar license systems, including various regulatory compliance requirements, such as KYC and AML.
(7) On September 17, 2015, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ruled that Bitcoin is a commodity.
As early as 2013, the United States issued a statement on the regulation of crypto assets. However, there has been no clear legislation on whether crypto-assets are regulated as “securities” by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or as “commodities” by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In response to an unregistered Bitcoin options platform (startup Coinflip), the CFTC ruled that Bitcoin is a commodity. The CFTC’s position further clarifies the status of Bitcoin and provides a regulatory basis for the development of Bitcoin commodity futures trading in the United States.
(8) On April 1, 2017, Bitcoin payment was officially legalized in Japan.
On April 1, 2017, the Japanese Cabinet signed the "Payment Services Amendment Act", officially recognizing Bitcoin as a legal payment method. The new Bitcoin regulation bill provides a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets, providing guarantees for the development of the industry. It is worth noting that the bill does not recognize Bitcoin as a currency, but only as a legal payment method. That is, if it is bought and sold as an asset, it will face income tax issues (consumption tax exemption).
(9) On September 4, 2017, seven ministries and commissions including the People’s Bank of China issued a document prohibiting trading platforms and ICO financing.
On December 6, 2013, the central bank and five other ministries and commissions issued the "Notice on Preventing Bitcoin Risks", defining Bitcoin as a virtual commodity. Before and after, many Bitcoin trading platforms appeared in China, hovering on the edge of the law. But by 2017, ICO fell into a feverish stage, and many air projects emerged. Due to regulatory pressure, on September 4, 2017, seven ministries and commissions including the central bank jointly issued a document banning ICO financing and trading platform services. Since then, domestic trading platforms have moved overseas.
(10) On December 28, 2017, South Korea announced the implementation of supervision of crypto asset transactions.
South Korea has a relatively open attitude towards crypto-assets and has not yet completely banned them. Following the classification of Bitcoin as a commodity in October 2017, it was announced on December 28, 2017 that more measures would be implemented to regulate the crypto asset market. Specific regulatory measures include implementing a real-name system for encrypted asset transactions and prohibiting anonymous account opening. This marks the beginning of compliance in the trading of crypto-assets such as Bitcoin in South Korea.
(11) On August 26, 2019, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) issued a banking license.
On August 26, 2019, crypto asset service providers SEBA Crypto AG and Sygnum AG issued a statement that they had obtained banking licenses from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The two companies can provide crypto asset services to institutional and professional clients, including custody storage and asset management, which is seen as a milestone in the field.
6. Major events in risk aversion
(1) On January 3, 2009, after the 2008 global financial crisis, countries were flooded, and the United Kingdom considered a second attempt to rescue banks.
On January 3, 2009, the Times headline "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" was recorded by Satoshi Nakamoto. Inside the genesis block. This can be seen as Satoshi Nakamoto’s original intention to create Bitcoin, to create a decentralized currency system to cope with the currency crisis caused by the flood.
(2) In March 2013, a crisis of trust broke out in Cyprus banks, and many depositors sought Bitcoin as a safe haven.
Before the Greek crisis, the Bank of Cyprus had invested a large amount of depositors' funds in Greek bonds or loans. Therefore, after the Greek crisis broke out, Cyprus also suffered heavy losses, a banking crisis broke out, and it was unable to repay its huge debt.On March 16, 2013, in order to obtain 10 billion euros in financial aid from the EU to avoid the risk of debt default and exit from the euro zone, the Cypriot government succumbed to pressure from international creditors and proposed to raise 5.8 billion by taxing each bank deposit account. EUR. This behavior of making people pay for the wrong decisions of the government and banks has aroused public outrage, leading to runs on many banks and cash machines. The outbreak of the banking trust crisis has caused some depositors to seek Bitcoin as a safe haven.
(3) On June 24, 2016, the British vote to leave the European Union was passed, starting a three-and-a-half-year Brexit process.
On June 24, 2016, the results of the British Brexit referendum came out. 51.9% of British voters voted in favor of leaving the European Union. Subsequently, the pound sterling plummeted. Brexit has brought greater risks to the global political economy, and the popularity of Bitcoin searches has also shown an upward trend in the UK. Especially since Prime Minister Johnson came to power, the possibility of "no-deal Brexit" has increased, and the search popularity of Bitcoin has increased significantly in the UK. Some British people want to learn about Bitcoin in order to avoid risks. On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union after several years and entered the Brexit transition period.
(4) In November 2016, India abolished large-denomination banknotes, triggering capital hedging.
On November 8, 2016, India abolished the old high-denomination currency of 500 rupees and 1,000 rupees to combat corruption and black money transactions. The incident caused an uproar, and some people's cash may become "waste paper." Such a sudden and strong action made many Indians uneasy, and Bitcoin was briefly sought after for reasons such as protecting assets. "Buy Bitcoin" became a hot search topic on the Indian Internet at that time.
(5) Around 2017, Nigeria hyperinflation broke out, and continued inflation caused the legal currency to depreciate rapidly.
In 2016, hyperinflation broke out in Nigeria. After the inflation rate exceeded double digits in February, it has maintained an upward trend, approaching 20% at the end of the year, and the legal currency Naira has depreciated crazily. Bitcoin has become a safe haven option for Nigerians due to long-term problems with inflation. On February 9, 2017, the buying price of Bitcoin on the Nigerian trading platform NairaEx reached US$1,674, which was much higher than the market price of US$1,100.
(6) In April 2018, Argentina currency crisis broke out.
In April 2018, against the backdrop of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, Argentina's capital outflow trend intensified and its currency exchange rate came under depreciation pressure. Affected by the international financial market, Argentina staged a "three kills" of stocks, bonds and foreign exchange. Coupled with factors such as high debt burden, a currency crisis broke out in Argentina. Argentina's inflation rate has increased by nearly 55%, and the legal currency peso once fell by about 40%. The continued depreciation of peso has caused some people to seek Bitcoin as a safe haven. A similar scene occurred again in August 2019. The difference is that this time it was a political and economic crisis triggered by the presidential election.
(7) In April 2019, Brazil inflation rate reached the highest level in four years, and Bitcoin transaction volume increased significantly.
Since Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro took office on January 1, 2019, Brazil’s inflation rate has begun to trend upward. In April 2019, Brazil, the world's ninth largest economy, saw its inflation rate soar to the highest level in four years. The continued rise in the overall price level of goods and services, coupled with other economic difficulties, has caused some local residents to turn to Bitcoin, and the local transaction volume of Bitcoin has increased significantly. On April 10, 2019, the trading volume of the Brazilian trading platform exceeded 100,000 Bitcoins.
(8) August 2019, Venezuela US sanctions crisis in the context of inflation.
On August 6, 2019, the United States froze all Venezuelan assets in the United States. In order to force Maduro to step down, the United States prohibits its citizens from conducting transactions with anyone who assists Maduro and the authorities. Inflation in Venezuela has continued to rise since 2018, and the escalation of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela has only made matters worse. In August 2019, the hyperinflation rate reached astronomical figures, and the Venezuelan legal currency was like a pile of waste paper. Some people sought Bitcoin to avoid the devaluation of the legal currency. After the ban was issued, Venezuela’s trading volume on the trading platform Local Bitcoins hit a record high.
(9) On April 9, 2020, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 outbreak, the economies of various countries were hit hard, and the Federal Reserve implemented an unprecedented rescue plan.
At the beginning of 2020, a new type of coronavirus began to spread around the world. The new coronavirus epidemic exceeded most people's expectations and had a major impact on the global economy. As of May 2020, the number of confirmed cases worldwide is approaching 5 million, with more than 300,000 deaths, and the epidemic is still ongoing. In order to cope with the economic crisis caused by the epidemic, various countries have introduced monetary and fiscal policies. Among them, after the stock market crash in March 2020, the Federal Reserve made two unprecedented emergency interest rate cuts and launched unlimited QE support.
On May 12, 2020, the last block height before Bitcoin’s third halving was 629999, the New York Times’ April 9, 2020 headline “NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 "Rescue (the Federal Reserve's $2.3 trillion stimulus plan, far exceeding the scale of the 2008 bailout)" was written into the block by the F2Pool mining pool to pay tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto's front-page headline of The Times recorded in the genesis block.
7. Summary
As a new thing, Bitcoin’s growth space may be beyond most people’s imagination, and it always gives a slap in the face to those who “return to zero for Bitcoin”. All events regarding Bitcoin seem to have been integrated into the price performance of Bitcoin as time goes by.
Source: QKL123
On October 13, 2010, Bitcoin exceeded 0.1 US dollars for the first time, and had a 10-fold increase in 5 days in July 2010; on February 9, 2011, Bitcoin exceeded 1 US dollar for the first time, increasing 10 times from 0.1 US dollars. It lasted nearly 120 days; on June 2, 2011, Bitcoin exceeded 10 US dollars for the first time, and it took more than 110 days to increase tenfold; on April 1, 2013, Bitcoin exceeded 100 US dollars for the first time, and it took more than 300 days to increase tenfold; 2013 On November 29, 2017, Bitcoin exceeded US$1,000 for the first time, and it took more than 240 days to increase tenfold; on November 29, 2017, Bitcoin exceeded US$10,000 for the first time, and it took four years to increase tenfold...
