The Bitcoin network began operating on January 3rd, 2009, with the formation of its genesis block. Bitcoin, together with all its users, has become an established social construct in 11 years.
It is said that a person or group of people, called Satoshi Nakamoto, created the first block of the Bitcoin network 11 years ago. With this event, known as genesis or zero, which occurred on January 3rd, 2009, the operation of the Bitcoin network began. Since then it has remained active without stopping and has been used by anyone interested in participating in it, without requiring permission from a third party.
To demonstrate that this first block was produced on January 3rd, 2009, and not before this date, Satoshi inserted the head of the British newspaper The Times in the field of Coinbase, in hexadecimal language within block 0, which can be confirmed on any block explorer. He added the name of the newspaper, its publication date and the headline that says “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
This phrase has been immortalized as a sample of the motivations that led Satoshi to create Bitcoin. Until now, the real relevance that Satoshi wanted to give it is still being discussed, by using precisely this headline relative to one of the consequences of the global economic crisis of 2008. Probably, that event, by the time he launched the cryptocurrency, led him to design the Bitcoin monetary system so that it would be an alternative to current monetary systems.
Since then, Bitcoin has been running 99.98% of the time, only stopping twice in its history, which allows its users to move the number of funds that they want, anytime and anywhere worldwide, without requiring a third party to grant permission to move balances, as banks do.
Bitcoin’s ability to resist censorship has been increasing in the network since every startup centralized with Satoshi has been decentralized since then. It should be noted that the pioneering cryptocurrency is currently a fairly robust monetary system and represents an alternative to national currencies.
Even though it seems an alternative to fiat currencies, Bitcoin may never replace the monetary system of any country, since this would have to hand over its economic control to a currency that cannot be controlled. It is very unlikely that a given government willingly accepts to lose power to its citizens when its very existence depends on this fact.
Of course, this does not mean that Bitcoin has failed in its mission since it currently proves to be a successful project. It has existed for over 11 years, which leads to saying that the entire world knows about it. Although it is not an easy technology to learn, it has a decent adoption if compared to altcoins. It has also become an important commodity in international markets, while some countries with economic problems have used it as both a safeguard of value and a payment alternative.
Many people may say that Bitcoin is “old technology” and that there are now more efficient 5.0 blockchains. These new clones may not even have Bitcoin’s current branding or network effects. This network is not just technology but also an established social construct, which continues growing little by little every day after these 11 years.
By Alexander Salazar
