![\"Cryptocurrency\"](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Lead.jpg\")
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Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The first Bitcoin transaction<\/a>, made between the cryptocurrency\u2019s elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto and cybersecurity veteran Hal Finney, came in January 2009. And this pivotal moment was the start of something big: in 2017, in fact, the number of Bitcoin transactions over a single day regularly exceeded 250,000<\/a>. Moreover, the same year also saw the value of a single unit of the digital currency shoot to above $4,000<\/a>, making one Bitcoin worth nearly three times as much as an ounce of gold<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, to put Bitcoin\u2019s rise into context, the many advances made in the field of cryptocurrency must be taken into consideration. This list article, then, traces the history of that field and identifies its 30 most crucial developments, all of which have helped progress cryptocurrencies to where they are today.<\/p>\n Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n To create this list article, we first turned to similar authoritative lists detailing the major developments in the history of cryptocurrency. These included the following:<\/p>\n \u25cf Forbes<\/em>, \u201cCoin Toss: 10 Milestones of the Cryptocurrency Craze\u201d<\/a> In order to determine the significance of these developments, we additionally scrutinized articles that described the short- or long-term consequences that certain milestones and technological innovations have had on the history of cryptocurrency as a whole. Those developments ultimately chosen to be included, then, were judged to be the most noteworthy of their kind.<\/p>\n The ordering, meanwhile, was based simply on chronology, with the list progressing from the earliest major development in the history of cryptocurrency to the latest.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The RSA algorithm has played a leading role in public key cryptography<\/a>, an encryption scheme that, in 2008, Professor Nigel Smart of the University of Bristol described<\/a> as \u201can invisible glue which allows us to keep our data secure and to prove who we are to organizations.\u201d As such, Smart continued, the RSA algorithm is part of \u201cthe backbone of the security of our electronic age.\u201d And as a vital development in public key cryptography, it\u2019s also a milestone in the history of cryptocurrency, as it\u2019s a public key that enables investors in virtual money to receive their funds<\/a>. The RSA algorithm itself is named for the first letters of the last names of MIT\u2019s Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who published a paper on the new invention<\/a> back in 1977. Intriguingly, though, Englishman Dr. Clifford Cocks \u2013 along with two other colleagues at the U.K.\u2019s Government Communications Headquarters \u2013 is also credited with working out the basic idea that became the RSA algorithm as early as 1973. However, this information was kept under wraps until 1997.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In 2016 David Chaum was dubbed \u201cthe father of online anonymity\u201d<\/a> by Wired<\/em> magazine. And he could feasibly be heralded as a cryptocurrency pioneer, too, as in 1993 he came up with the concept of ecash<\/a> \u2013 an early precursor to today\u2019s forms of digital money. By 1997, moreover, he had managed to raise finances for his idea and even got a bank in St. Louis to sign up to it. But it turned out that Chaum may just have been too ahead of his time. Come 1999, DigiCash, the firm the innovator had set up to manage the ecash scheme, went bankrupt, with Chaum then offering his patents to bidders. At the time, he told Forbes<\/i>, \u201cIt was hard to get enough merchants to accept it, so that you could get enough consumers to use it, or vice versa.\u201d Of course, anonymized and encrypted digital currencies are now commonplace.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n As an amateur scholar of economic history, Douglas Jackson had formed the opinion that a currency backed by gold bullion was superior to the fiat money favored by most countries. In 1996 that notion prompted the one-time oncologist to launch e-gold, an innovation that Wired<\/em> described in 2009 as \u201ca private, international currency that would circulate independent of government controls.\u201d And, despite a series of setbacks, e-gold went from strength to strength in the years following its debut; by 2005, in fact, there were 3.5 million e-gold accounts in 165 countries. Unfortunately, organized criminals also saw the benefits of the system \u2013 a fact that didn\u2019t escape the U.S. government. As a result, the FBI and Secret Service raided Jackson\u2019s home, e-gold\u2019s parent company and the system\u2019s servers, leading to a charge of money laundering for the entrepreneur and effectively stymying e-gold\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Well over a decade before Bitcoin ever came to fruition, British cryptographer Adam Back came up with an algorithm that would prove crucial to the digital currency<\/a>. Specifically, in 1997 he devised the \u201chashcash\u201d proof of work data that inspired the system that Bitcoin uses to mine new coins. But that\u2019s not all that hashcash is good for. In effect, it can also be used to combat large batches of spam emails by making attaining a proof of work for each one a lengthy and difficult process. Despite hashcash\u2019s importance to Bitcoin, however, Adam Back has proven to be rather modest about the inadvertent role he played in the development of the cryptocurrency. In a 2013 post on the Bitcoin Forum, for example, he wrote<\/a>, \u201c[W]hile it is true that I invented hashcash, I am not claiming Bitcoin is some simple extension. Bitcoin has actually several key innovations that no one succeeded with before.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Computer science graduate Wei Dai<\/a> arguably laid the groundwork for cryptocurrencies all the way back in 1998<\/a>. His outline of the working of b-money, an electronic currency, was posted on an internet mailing list in November of that year and, as Dai told IEEE Spectrum<\/em> in 2012, it aimed \u201cto enable online economies that are purely voluntary, ones that couldn\u2019t be taxed or regulated through the threat of force.\u201d What\u2019s more, although the system he proposed<\/a> had certain deficiencies that made it unworkable in practice, it did suggest transactions being verified by a proof of work. This was one of the concepts later used by Satoshi Nakamoto to create Bitcoin, and Nakamoto himself would acknowledge his cryptocurrency\u2019s debt to b-money in a 2008 email to Dai.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The origins of PayPal date all the way back to 1999, when software company Confinity<\/a> trialed a scheme that allowed users to make U.S. dollar payments via email. The following year, however, saw Confinity \u2013 now called X.com \u2013 turn their attentions to auction site eBay so that buyers could remunerate sellers via their PayPal accounts. And this savvy move paid off: by 2004, in fact, PayPal\u2019s revenue had reached $1.4 billion, making it a powerful player in the world of online payments. Arguably, PayPal\u2019s greatest achievement was to make internet users comfortable with the idea of transferring funds online. In this way, it can be said to have paved the way for the advent of digital currencies. What\u2019s more, in a neat turn of events, PayPal itself would start to take payments in certain cryptocurrencies in September 2014.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The official Tor blog states<\/a>, \u201cCould cryptocurrencies claim that they provide privacy if Tor was not around to give strong transport-layer anonymity?\u201d Indeed, using the browsing software \u2013 formerly known as The Onion Router<\/a> \u2013 is an option for those who want to ensure that they can\u2019t be tracked down by their IP address when making a cryptocurrency transaction. Tor works by routing web traffic through what it describes as a \u201cseries of virtual tunnels,\u201d<\/a> thus making it extremely difficult to track down the physical location or identity of any individual user. Naval Research Laboratory mathematician Paul Syverson<\/a> and MIT graduates Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson<\/a> jointly developed the software, which was given a pre-alpha release in 2002<\/a>; it was then officially released the following year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Hal Finney may have spent his early career as a video games programmer<\/a>, but arguably his one true passion was combating the tendency of big business and government to intrude in the lives of private citizens. To that end, in 1991 he began to volunteer his time to the Pretty Good Privacy project<\/a>, an innovative encryption scheme that Finney saw as \u201cbroadly speaking\u2026 dedicated to this goal of making Big Brother obsolete.\u201d And the invention that may have been Finney\u2019s greatest achievement was a piece of cryptographic technology intended to circumvent official organizations: that is, reusable proof of work (RPOW)<\/a>. RPOW was an archetype of a cryptocurrency that, in Finney\u2019s own words, \u201cprovides for proof of work tokens to be reused\u201d in much the same way as physical cash is transferred from individual to individual. Finney unveiled this system in 2004, and it can be seen as a clear precursor to the cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, that were to follow in its wake.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In October 2008<\/a> Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to a future phenomenon: Bitcoin. He achieved this, moreover, by publishing a white paper<\/a> that neatly outlined the workings and aims of the cryptocurrency. And what that paper \u2013 titled \u201cBitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System\u201d \u2013 revealed may have caused alarm in some quarters, not least because it described a way of transferring funds \u201cwithout the burdens of going through a financial institution.\u201d Indeed, with Bitcoin, Nakamoto had come up with a payments system that was both secure and completely outside the influence of national and international authorities. In addition, the paper described the more technical aspects of Bitcoin\u2019s workings, including the hashcash-inspired proof of work system central to the creation of new coins. All of this would be put into practice, of course, the following year, when Nakamoto would mine Bitcoin\u2019s \u201cgenesis block.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In \u201cBitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,\u201d Satoshi Nakamoto describes a cryptocurrency network that \u201ctimestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof of work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof of work.\u201d In this way, he summed up the form and operation of what came to be called \u201cblockchain,\u201d a system crucial to Bitcoin and subsequent cryptocurrencies. Put simply, the Bitcoin blockchain acts as a secure, decentralized electronic \u201cledger\u201d of transactions made. But that isn\u2019t all that the technology can be used for; Ethereum, for instance, runs its own blockchain<\/a> to enable individuals to create their own apps. And in a 2017 article for Harvard Business Review<\/em><\/a>, Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhan have argued that blockchain itself even \u201chas the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social systems.\u201d This process, they have noted, may \u201ctake decades,\u201d however.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In January 2009 the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto set the Bitcoin revolution in motion by mining the fledgling currency\u2019s first ever block of 50 coins. And Nakamoto presumably intentionally made sure that the moment was fixed in history by including within the code for the block a headline from the January 3, 2009, edition of British newspaper The Times<\/em>. This read \u201cChancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,\u201d leading some to speculate that the elusive developer of Bitcoin had a political point he wanted to make about the vagaries of the conventional financial system. It\u2019s also worth noting that, either by accident or design, the so-called \u201cgenesis block\u201d that Nakamoto mined cannot be redeemed, due to the certain unique characteristics within its code.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n After Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block in early January 2009, it was just a matter of days before the cryptocurrency was used in its first transaction. That pivotal moment came on January 12, and the man who received the digital coins was Hal Finney, an expert on the development of encryption software. Finney had also been involved in trying to create a digital currency \u2013 perhaps why he was particularly intrigued by Nakamoto\u2019s recent innovation. But although Finney was excited by the concept of Bitcoin, it still seems as if he initially underestimated just how successful it was going to be. And the cryptographer admitted as much in a 2013 post on the Bitcoin Forum, where he wrote, \u201c[In late 2010]\u2026 I was surprised to find that [the Bitcoin project] was not only still going [but that] bitcoins actually had monetary value.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Understandably, encrypted and anonymized digital currencies may appeal to those who have reason to hide their commercial activities from law enforcement agencies. Indeed, it\u2019s easy to see how, for example, drug dealers and purchasers would relish the cover that the likes of Bitcoin can provide. And the now-notorious site Silk Road thrived by capitalizing on both the relative difficulty of reaching the \u201cdark web\u201d on which it could be found and the secure, anonymous nature of Bitcoin transactions. Founded by Texan Ross Ulbricht, who went under the pseudonym \u201cDread Pirate Roberts\u201d online, Silk Road went live in January 2011 as a marketplace for often illegal drugs. And just 18 months after the site\u2019s launch, Forbes<\/em> would reveal that business there was booming: apparently, to the tune of approximately $1.9 million in sales per month.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n A little more than two years after the first Bitcoin transaction in January 2009, the digital currency passed a major milestone. It was on February 9, 2011, in fact, that Bitcoin first reached parity with the U.S. dollar on leading exchange MtGox<\/a> \u2013 an achievement that arguably now marked it out as a legitimate force to be reckoned with in the worlds of international commerce and finance. In the following two years, moreover, the upward trend largely continued, culminating in the price of one Bitcoin rocketing to over $1,100 in late 2013. And while the cryptocurrency has suffered from market volatility since then, it\u2019s worth noting that, in August 2017, a single Bitcoin became worth over $4,300. Anyone who invested in Bitcoin back in February 2009, then, may well now be sitting on a digital goldmine.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In the wake of the success of Bitcoin, several other developers, programmers and cryptographers followed Satoshi Nakamoto in releasing their own variant cryptocurrencies<\/a>. Perhaps one of the most significant of these, though, is Namecoin, which was created by Vincent Durham<\/a> and unveiled in April 2011. In part, it\u2019s because Namecoin was the first \u201caltcoin\u201d<\/a> \u2013 or new cryptocurrency \u2013 to emerge after Bitcoin\u2019s launch. Particularly of note, however, is the fact that Namecoin\u2019s developers took Bitcoin\u2019s main infrastructure and added an innovative feature to it: specifically, a decentralized domain name system (DNS). In this way, Namecoin users can more securely store personal information or details of a domain name, for example \u2013 a useful measure for those wanting to keep identifying details out of the hands of others.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Originally developed by Arthur Britto, David Schwartz<\/a> and Ryan Fugger<\/a> and launched in 2012, Ripple functions both as a distinct digital currency and as an electronic network for financial dealings. It\u2019s arguably best known for the latter, however, for which it claims to be \u201cthe world\u2019s only enterprise blockchain solution for global payments.\u201d Furthermore, Ripple accepts both conventional currencies and cryptocurrencies, enabling individuals to, for example, pay over money owed in dollars and receive funds in Bitcoin in return. And given this convenience to the consumer, not to mention the speed at which transactions take place on Ripple, it\u2019s perhaps no surprise that financial institutions all over the world have since partnered with the company<\/a> to take advantage of its settlement technology \u2013 including the likes of Santander<\/a>, Royal Bank of Canada and Westpac Banking Corp.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n When Peercoin was introduced in 2012, it joined a growing list of altcoins that had launched in Bitcoin\u2019s wake. Where Peercoin differed from those other cryptocurrencies, though, was in its use of proof of stake security. Indeed, as the 2012 white paper announcing Peercoin states<\/a>, this new cryptocurrency relegated proof of work to solely \u201cinitial minting,\u201d making it, as the paper\u2019s authors Scott Nadal and Sunny King described, \u201clargely non-essential in the long run.\u201d This hybrid system had one key advantage, moreover. The proof of stake method depends on coins that are already in existence, and, in Peercoin\u2019s case, is used to then determine the number of future coins investors receive. This means that new coins can be created without using the large amounts of electricity needed to mine cryptocurrencies using only the proof of work principle.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In March 2013 there was a total of almost 11 million bitcoins in circulation<\/a>. At the same time, the value of each Bitcoin had risen to more than $92. Do the math, and you\u2019ll find that this meant that the value of all bitcoins now exceeded $1 billion \u2013 a highly significant milestone that had taken the cryptocurrency just over four years to achieve. But that landmark moment wouldn\u2019t have happened without a steep increase in Bitcoin\u2019s worth \u2013 just a month beforehand, a single unit of the virtual currency had been equivalent to only $32. But despite Bitcoin\u2019s success, there were still those skeptical as to whether it was a good buy. For instance, while speaking to IEEE Spectrum<\/em> in 2013, ClearBridge Investments\u2019 Michael Kagan shared his doubts, saying, \u201cI just don\u2019t feel comfortable getting involved with something vulnerable to being hacked or manipulated, and with no recompense if it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Since its creation in early 2011, Silk Road had been operating as a dark web marketplace for sometimes illegal drugs. And given the\u00a0site\u2019s wares, it\u2019s understandable that the FBI had been tracking its operations very closely. Agent Chris Tarbell, in particular, had been searching for the identity of the mysterious \u201cDread Pirate Roberts,\u201d and when he found the IP address that seemed to suggest the location of the site\u2019s founder, the authorities swooped in. In October 2013, in a dramatic snatch, FBI agents arrested Roberts \u2013 a.k.a. Ross Ulbricht \u2013 with his laptop open in a San Francisco library. Silk Road itself, meanwhile, was seized by the agency and shut down. And that closure seemingly had an effect on the value of Bitcoin<\/a> \u2013 the currency fell from a little under $146 to just below $110 when the news of Silk Road\u2019s fate emerged.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The first ever automatic teller machine<\/a> (ATM) dispensing paper money opened in London, England in 1967. But it was to be another 46 years \u2013 in October 2013, to be precise<\/a> \u2013 before the world\u2019s first Bitcoin ATM appeared at Waves Coffee House in Vancouver. The machine allowed Bitcoin owners to exchange their digital money for conventional currency after being identified, in a suitably hi-tech manner, by their palm prints<\/a>. Individuals could also sign up at the machine to create a Bitcoin account, and around a third of the first day\u2019s 81 users did just that. Even more impressively, the ATM did $10,000 worth of business in that one day alone. But there were limits to the new service. As Jordan Kelley, then CEO of ATM operator Robocoin<\/a>, told ABC News at the time, \u201cFor Canadian customers, we\u2019ve set a transaction limit of $3,000 per day. You can\u2019t just put in or take out a million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n As with conventional currency, world events can sharply curtail a cryptocurrency\u2019s value. That was the case with Bitcoin in December 2013, after BTCChina made a perhaps unexpected announcement<\/a>. Specifically, in a message posted on Chinese social media site Sina Weibo, the leading Bitcoin exchange stated that it would no longer accept deposits in yuan, the Chinese national currency. This came after a statement made by the People\u2019s Bank of China that cautioned financial institutions against the trade of Bitcoin, adding, \u201cBitcoins are virtual goods that have no legal status or monetary equivalent and should not be used as currency.\u201d And although BTCChina\u2019s notice went on to state that their measure was a temporary one, and that cryptocurrency deposits were to be unaffected, the development had an almost immediate effect on Bitcoin\u2019s worth, cutting it from $1,200 to just $572 on the MtGox exchange. In January 2014, however, BTCChina began to allow deposits in yuan once more.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In 2013 Cyprus\u2019 University of Nicosia earned headlines as the first accredited college on the planet to accept payment for tuition in Bitcoin. Given the sometimes violent fluctuations in Bitcoin\u2019s worth, this may have initially seemed a risky venture to some. A spokesperson for the university, however, outlined the institution\u2019s reasoning to GeekWire in November 2013. They explained, \u201cThe intention of this initiative is to ease transmission difficulties for certain students and to build our own practical knowledge about this field, not to engage in currency speculation.\u201d In addition, the University of Nicosia now offers what it states is \u201cthe world\u2019s first postgraduate degree in digital currency\u201d<\/a> \u2013 a online master\u2019s course that it believes will \u201c[position] the university as a leader in Bitcoin and blockchain technology education globally.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In January 2014 Overstock became the first major retail website in the U.S. to accept payment in Bitcoin. Later that same year, it began accepting the cryptocurrency on its sites around the world, too. Headquartered in Utah and having traded since 1999<\/a>, Overstock sells everything from bookcases to barbecues and handbags to humidifiers. And it does so very successfully \u2013 back in 2014, in fact, it boasted annual sales of $1.3 billion. While speaking that year about Overstock\u2019s choice to allow Bitcoin payments, the site\u2019s CEO Patrick Byrne said to Wired<\/em>, \u201cAs long as you can get on the internet, you can order and pay in Bitcoin. You can order in North Korea if you want \u2013 as long as you\u2019re having things delivered to, say, Singapore.\u201d And it was Byrne who personally pushed for the move, which seemingly fits well with his libertarian belief in a financial system outside the control of large corporations and overweening governments.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The February 2014 hack of MtGox was not the first time that the Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange had been infiltrated. It had previously happened in 2011, for instance, leading to the site being shut down for days on end and the loss of $8.75 million. But while MtGox had bounced back from that previous data breach and went on to earn itself a reputation as one of the most trustworthy Bitcoin exchanges, in 2014 it would not be so lucky. Indeed, it had been in hot water even prior to the hack. By late 2013, for instance, the U.S. government had confiscated $5 million from MtGox because the firm had not filled in the requisite paperwork to be registered as a money transfer service. CoinLab, once a MtGox business partner, was also suing the company for $75 million. When the hack and the resulting loss of 850,000 bitcoins \u2013 valued at the time at close to $400 million \u2013 occurred, then, it was arguably the nail in MtGox\u2019s coffin, and the exchange then fell into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Ethereum was first described in a 2013 white paper<\/a> by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-born programmer who wanted to create a digital platform that would go much further than merely being an encrypted payment system like Bitcoin. Indeed, Ethereum\u2019s own blockchain also enables individuals to create what it has termed \u201csmart contracts\u201d: apps that can benefit from the security the chain provides. In this way, Ethereum goes beyond Bitcoin\u2019s use of blockchain as a mere \u201cledger\u201d for financial transactions<\/a>. And since the platform\u2019s\u00a0launch in 2015<\/a>, it has earned Buterin high praise indeed from Fortune<\/em> magazine<\/a>, which has labeled him a \u201cboy genius\u201d and \u201carguably as successful an entrepreneur as [Snapchat\u2019s] Evan Spiegel or [Airbnb\u2019s] Brian Chesky.\u201d That success, moreover, can be measured by Ethereum\u2019s highly impressive market capitalization of over $28 billion in September 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n March 3, 2017, saw Bitcoin reach a milestone that tech website Engadget has deemed \u201ca weird but auspicious moment in human history.\u201d<\/a> That\u2019s because, on that day, the worth of one unit of the cryptocurrency \u2013 then $1,238.11 \u2013 exceeded that of the value of an ounce of gold, which was priced at $1,237.73 by Bloomberg Markets. Just 38 cents were in it \u2013 but it was a slim margin that made Bitcoin the winner. That achievement may have seemed unthinkable just two years before, when a single Bitcoin was equivalent to a mere $200. And as 2017 went on, the gap between the price of gold and the price of Bitcoin, in fact, became increasingly extreme. In mid-September of that year, for instance, an ounce of gold was worth $1,331.60; one Bitcoin, by contrast, had a value of $3,363.42, according to CoinDesk\u2019s Bitcoin Price Index.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The cryptocurrency boom, and particularly the steady rise of Bitcoin, has likely enticed many to consider acquiring a few digital coins of their own. Unfortunately, though, one particular cryptocurrency investment opportunity turned out to be nothing more than a Ponzi scheme<\/a>. OneCoin offered interested parties the chance to learn about cryptocurrency trading with educational packages that cost as much as $29,000<\/a>. These packages also included tokens<\/a> which, in theory, could be used to invest in OneCoin. However, in 2016 British newspaper The Mirror<\/em> pointed out a clause in the OneCoin website\u2019s terms and conditions that arguably spoke of the scheme\u2019s true nature. This read, \u201cThe company does not warrant that product descriptions or other content is accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free.\u201d And, as it turned out, Indian authorities were wise to the scam; in April 2017 police in Mumbai apprehended 18 individuals<\/a> involved in OneCoin and seized close to $3 million in funds.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n Like many startup companies, Tezos used crowdfunding<\/a> to help subsidize its decentralized blockchain system. More specifically, this crowdfunding took the form of an initial coin offering (ICO)<\/a>, in which individuals give money to a fledgling cryptocurrency firm in exchange for an amount of that cryptocurrency. In Tezos\u2019 case, investors received \u201ctex\u201d tokens<\/a> in return for their financial assistance. What\u2019s more, a lot of people seem to have found that deal appealing, as just 13 days after the ICO was launched\u00a0in July 2017, Tezos had raised over $230 million in Bitcoin and ether coins. That astounding sum ensured that the company had held the biggest ever ICO at the time. Indeed, it easily surpassed the previous record set by Bancor, which had earned approximately $150 million with its ICO \u2013 itself a noteworthy achievement.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In September 2015 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC), seemingly aware of virtual money\u2019s march into the mainstream, issued a statement deeming that cryptocurrencies would be regulated as commodities<\/a>. And according to financial technology expert and New York Law School professor Houman Shadab, the move was a logical one. Shabad told the Washington Examiner<\/em> that this state of affairs at the time was one that cryptocurrency firms had \u201clong already taken for granted.\u201d Perhaps even more noteworthy, though, was the CFTC\u2019s ruling in July 2017 that Bitcoin exchange company LedgerX would become the first such operator of its kind to be federally regulated. LedgerX, for its part, greeted the news with a statement on its website that read<\/a>, \u201cTraditionally, our company has purposely been working quietly on the sidelines. Now, with official United States regulatory approval for our exchange and clearing house licenses, this is going to change dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n In April 2016 it was reported that the Russian Ministry of Finance<\/a> was planning to outlaw the use of digital currency altogether in the country. What\u2019s more, the penalties proposed for those who chose to ignore the legislation were steep. Financial executives caught dabbling in cryptocurrencies, for instance, may have faced prison sentences of up to seven years. Speaking to Bloomberg<\/a>, a Russian central bank spokesperson said of the matter, \u201cBitcoin can be used to finance the shadow economy and crimes, and\u2026 we cannot allow [this risk] in Russia\u2019s financial system, which we are striving to make transparent and healthy.\u201d By September 2017, however, the Russian government had apparently had a complete change of heart, with Bloomberg reporting that the nation would now seek to both permit the use of and regulate cryptocurrencies. And Russian Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov confirmed this move, explaining, \u201cThe state certainly understands that cryptocurrencies are a reality, there is no point in prohibiting them. It is possible to regulate them, so the Finance Ministry will draw up a bill by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Image Source The first Bitcoin transaction, made between the cryptocurrency\u2019s elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto and cybersecurity veteran Hal Finney, came in January 2009. And this pivotal moment was the start of something big: in 2017, in fact, the number of Bitcoin transactions over a single day regularly exceeded 250,000. Moreover, the same year also saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":69766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-69734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69767,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69734\/revisions\/69767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u25cf International Business Times, \u201cFrom Online Payments to Bitcoin: The Evolution of Cryptocurrency\u201d<\/a>
\n\u25cf Koinex Crunch, \u201cA Brief History of Cryptocurrency\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n30. The RSA Algorithm Is Brought to the World (1977)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/30.-The-RSA-Algorithm-Is-Brought-to-the-World-1977.jpg\")
<\/p>\n29. David Chaum Invents ecash (1993)<\/h2>\n
![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/29.-David-Chaum-Invents-ecash-1993.jpg\")
<\/p>\n28. Douglas Jackson Launches e-gold, a Cryptocurrency Precursor (1996)<\/h2>\n
![\"Douglas](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/28.-Douglas-Jackson-Launches-e-gold-a-Cryptocurrency-Precursor-1996.jpg\")
<\/p>\n27. Adam Back Invents Hashcash (1997)<\/h2>\n
![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27.-Adam-Back-Invents-Hashcash-1997.jpg\")
<\/p>\n26. Wei Dai Proposes b-money (1998)<\/h2>\n
![\"Wei](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/26.-Wei-Dai-Proposes-b-money-1998.jpg\")
<\/p>\n25. PayPal Is Established (1999)<\/h2>\n
![\"PayPal](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/25.-PayPal-Is-Established-1999.jpg\")
<\/p>\n24. The Tor Browsing Software Is Given an Official Release (2003)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/24.-The-Tor-Browsing-Software-Is-Given-an-Official-Release-2003.jpg\")
<\/p>\n23. Hal Finney Unveils Reusable Proof of Work (2004)<\/h2>\n
![\"Hal](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/23.-Hal-Finney-Unveils-Reusable-Proof-of-Work-2004.jpg\")
<\/p>\n22. Satoshi Nakamoto Publishes the Paper \u201cBitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System\u201d (2008)<\/h2>\n
![\"Satoshi](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/22.-Satoshi-Nakamoto-Publishes-the-Paper-Bitcoin-A-Peer-to-Peer-Electronic-Cash-System-2008.jpg\")
<\/p>\n21. Satoshi Nakamoto Creates Blockchain (2008)<\/h2>\n
![\"Satoshi](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/21.-Satoshi-Nakamoto-Creates-Blockchain-2008.jpg\")
<\/p>\n20. The First Bitcoin Block Is Mined (2009)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/20.-The-First-Bitcoin-Block-is-Mined-2009.jpg\")
<\/p>\n19. The First Bitcoin Transaction Is Made (2009)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/19.-The-First-Bitcoin-Transaction-Is-Made-2009.jpg\")
<\/p>\n18. Silk Road Goes Live (2011)<\/h2>\n
![\"Silk](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/18.-Silk-Road-Goes-Live-2011.jpg\")
<\/p>\n17. Bitcoin Reaches Parity with the U.S. Dollar (2011)<\/h2>\n
![\"Bitcoin](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/17.-Bitcoin-Reaches-Parity-with-the-U.S.-Dollar-2011.jpg\")
<\/p>\n16. Namecoin Launches with a Decentralized DNS (2011)<\/h2>\n
![\"Namecoin](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/16.-Namecoin-Launches-with-a-Decentralized-DNS-2011.jpg\")
<\/p>\n15. Ripple Is Released (2012)<\/h2>\n
![\"Ripple](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/15.-Ripple-Is-Released-2012.jpg\")
<\/p>\n14. Peercoin Launches with Proof of Stake Security (2012)<\/h2>\n
![\"Peercoin](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/14.-Peercoin-Launches-with-Proof-of-Stake-Security-2012.jpg\")
<\/p>\n13. The Total Value of Bitcoin Exceeds $1 Billion (2013)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/13.-The-Total-Value-of-Bitcoin-Exceeds-1-Billion-2013.jpg\")
<\/p>\n12. Silk Road Is Closed and the Value of Bitcoin Plummets (2013)<\/h2>\n
![\"Silk](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12.-Silk-Road-Is-Closed-and-the-Value-of-Bitcoin-Plummets-2013.jpg\")
<\/p>\n11. The World\u2019s First Bitcoin ATM Opens for Business in Vancouver (2013)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/11.-The-Worlds-First-Bitcoin-ATM-Opens-for-Business-in-Vancouver-2013.jpg\")
<\/p>\n10. BTCChina, the Country\u2019s Largest Bitcoin Exchange, Stops Deposits in Yuan (2013)<\/h2>\n
![\"BTCChina,](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/10.-BTCChina-the-Countrys-Largest-Bitcoin-Exchange-Stops-Deposits-in-Yuan-2013.jpg\")
<\/p>\n9. The University of Nicosia Begins Accepting Tuition Payment in Bitcoin (2013)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/9.-The-University-of-Nicosia-Begins-Accepting-Tuition-Payment-in-Bitcoin-2013.jpg\")
<\/p>\n8. Overstock Becomes the First Major E-Commerce Site to Take Bitcoin (2014)<\/h2>\n
![\"Overstock](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/8.-Overstock-Becomes-the-First-Major-E-Commerce-Site-to-Take-Bitcoin-2014.jpg\")
<\/p>\n7. Leading Bitcoin Exchange MtGox Is Hacked (2014)<\/h2>\n
![\"Leading](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/7.-Leading-Bitcoin-Exchange-MtGox-Is-Hacked-2014.jpg\")
<\/p>\n6. Ethereum Launches (2015)<\/h2>\n
![\"Ethereum](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/6.-Ethereum-Launches-2015.jpg\")
<\/p>\n5. Bitcoin\u2019s Value Exceeds That of Gold (2017)<\/h2>\n
![\"Bitcoin\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/5.-Bitcoins-Value-Exceeds-That-of-Gold-2017.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n4. Cryptocurrency Company OneCoin Unravels (2017)<\/h2>\n
![\"Cryptocurrency](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/4.-Cryptocurrency-Company-OneCoin-Unravels-2017.jpg\")
<\/p>\n3. Startup Tezos\u2019 Initial Coin Offering Raises a Record Amount (2017)<\/h2>\n
![\"Startup](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/3.-Startup-Tezos-Initial-Coin-Offering-Raises-a-Record-Amount-2017.jpg\")
<\/p>\n2. LedgerX Becomes the First Digital Currency Exchange to Get U.S. Federal Approval (2017)<\/h2>\n
![\"LedgerX](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/2.-LedgerX-Becomes-the-First-Digital-Currency-Exchange-to-Get-U.S.-Federal-Approval-2017.jpg\")
<\/p>\n1. Russia Moves to Regulate Cryptocurrencies (2017)<\/h2>\n
![\"Russia](\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/1.-Russia-Moves-to-Regulate-Cryptocurrencies-2017.jpg\")
<\/p>\n