The document provides an overview of cryptocurrency and blockchain, highlighting the rise of Bitcoin since its inception in 2009 and the significant gains seen by early investors. It discusses the mechanics of Bitcoin transactions, the decentralization offered by blockchain technology, and the advantages and challenges of using cryptocurrencies. Additionally, it touches on historical perspectives of money, the functionality of digital wallets, and the growing interest in blockchain applications across various industries.

1. The Financial World of Cryptocurrency and
Blockchain
 Boluwatife Adeyeye
Copywriter & Seo blogwriter. I write engaging copies for blog, websites, ecommerce and digital
publications in the Finance & Lifestyle niche
Do you know that the price of a bitcoin started at $0.30? If you had put $100 into bitcoin in 2011,
when it was still $0.30, you might have gotten 333 bitcoins. Interestingly, bitcoin's price fluctuates,
but on November 10, 2021, it hit an all-time high of $68,990.90. After hearing several success
stories of people who bought bitcoin early and eventually saw significant returns on their initial
investment, I'm sure you'll agree with me that bitcoin is a viable headwind for achieving a
remarkable financial gain in a short period.
Didi Taihuttu, a man who sold all he owned for Bitcoin before the 2017 bull market was one of the
earliest bitcoin investors.

2. Didi was enthralled by bitcoin and its potential to disrupt the world of traditional finance. He put his
money into bitcoin mining and went about his business. Didi sold his house, cars, furniture, and
nearly all of their other belongings to amass as much BTC as possible.
Bitcoin is a new digital money that was invented in 2009 by a mysterious figure known only as
Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made without the use of a middleman, i.e., no banks!
In 2008, Nakamoto wrote a paper that sparked the crypto currency's growth. The term "peer-to-peer
electronic currency system" was coined to indicate the usage of a peer-to-peer network that solves
the problem of double-spending. Because bitcoin does not exist in physical space, unlike real
money which can only exist in one place at a time, the problem of double-spending might have been
a severe issue.
A decentralized Market was introduced by Nakamoto. Rather than functioning from within a
centralized exchange, this technology allows investors to deal directly with one another. To transact
securities, buyers and sellers do not need to be in the same location. The decentralized market
shows real-time bid/ask pricing.

3. Who Were the Early Users of Bitcoin
Hal Finney, Peter Saddington, Dave Carlson, and Laszlo Hanyecz were among the first bitcoin
users.
Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney, a member of the Cypherpunks, made the first transaction on the
blockchain network, and Finney received 50 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto in exchange for his
support. Hal is famous for being the first person to receive Bitcoin. Peter Saddington is a
businessman who bought bitcoins when they were worth $2.52 in 2011. He had roughly 45 bitcoins.
From his investment, he made almost $750,000 in 2017. Dave Carlson and Laszlo Hanyecz we're
both early miners of bitcoins.
It is undeniable that early investors and adopters have become millions and billionaires as a result of
acquiring BTC. Bitcoin can be used to make anonymous purchases. Furthermore, because bitcoins
are not tied to any government or regulated, international payments are simple and inexpensive.
Some people buy bitcoins purely as an investment, expecting that their value would rise. It should
however be noted that Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile, prone to market crashes and
bullrushes. To maximize your chances of profit, regard cryptocurrencies as a long-term investment,
similar to traditional assets. Bitcoins are kept in a digital wallet, which can be found on the cloud or
the computer of the user. The wallet is a type of virtual bank account that allows users to send and
receive bitcoins, make purchases, and store money.
Early Forms of Money
Allow me to transport you back in time to a time before money when people obtained and
exchanged items by bartering. Without the use of money or a monetary medium, goods are
exchanged between two or more parties. Because there was no true concentration of power and no
over exploitation of natural resources back then, trade by better was incredible, but it was difficult
to measure value and lack of unity

4. Because of an issue with batter using trade, the transition to currency was made.
People traded value for value throughout the bartering age. So, how did it become possible to trade
a worthless piece of paper for something useful?
Then people realized that currency must first establish a critical level of trustworthiness.
People began to use money in the shape of shells, barely, feathers, and whale teeth to encourage
commerce.
The properties of these early forms of money, however, presented some difficulties. Some features
of these forms of Money became apparent.
Barley was not only difficult to transport, but it was also not portable or long-lasting. Whale teeth
are difficult to separate into two, making them difficult to divide. Shells can be found on any beach,
therefore they're not exactly rare.

5. Because possessing a lot of money can make an individual strong, and power could get such a
person a lot of it, kings came up with the notion of minting coins out of precious metals and
stamping them with an insignia that ensured their weight and value. Metal money was also
established since it had inherent worth and could be exchanged with other communities.
The popularity of Metal money, however, led to the temptation that sovereigns could gain money by
circulating debased currency worth less than face value by slimming down the coins or sneaking
cheaper base metals into the mix.
PAPER MONEY
People trusted the paper because it said it was worth what it said it was worth, and they could
always swap it for gold, silver, or the coins it represented.
The only thing that sets a bank note apart from any other piece of paper is confidence.
MONEY AND BANKS
Banking had become a highly reputable profession by the nineteenth century. To make money
through basic money lending, banks charged a lower rate of interest on the money they took in than
on the money they loaned out. However, banks quickly recognized that as long as depositors didn't
all call for their money at the same time, they could lend out far more money than they had on
deposit. Fractional reserve banking is the term for this.
THE BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
The blockchain, which is used by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to generate trust, is a network-
based ledger. Blockchains, like traditional ledgers used by institutions around the world, hold
records of every bitcoin transactions ever made.

6. Because the contents in any one block cannot be changed retrospectively without affecting all
following blocks, blockchains are resistant to data tampering.
Based on work by Stuart Haber, W. Scott Stornetta, and Dave Bayer, the blockchain was
popularized by a person (or group of persons) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as
the public transaction log of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
Blockchain is a method of storing data in such a way that it is difficult or impossible to alter, hack,
or cheat it. A blockchain is a digital log of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the
blockchain's complete network of computer systems.
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BITCOIN AND
BLOCKCHAIN
1. Block chain is being invested in by 90% of North American and European banks.
2. It is impossible to prohibit the use of Bitcoin. Banks and governments may impose restrictions,
but anyone with internet connection can use Bitcoin.
3. Block chain is so versatile that it can be used for storing medical records, concluding binding
agreements, tracking the flow of goods, storing personal credit records, verifying payments, and
much more, in addition to recording financial transactions.
4. Cryptocurrency is controlled by a set of digital keys and addresses that represent virtual token
ownership and control. Any public address can be used to deposit bitcoin or other tokens. However,
even if tokens are deposited into a user's address, they cannot be withdrawn without the unique
private key.
In 2013, James Howells threw out a hard disk containing his digital wallet, which cost him a lot of
money. There were 7,500 Bitcoins in the wallet. Howells, who resides in Wales, is attempting to
persuade the local city council to allow him to excavate the dump in a desperate attempt to locate
the Bitcoin-containing hard drive.
Howells has given the city a part of the proceeds in exchange for the opportunity to search. At the
time of writing, the Bitcoins lost were worth nearly $350 million.
Block chain technology is uncontroversial and has proven to be reliable over time. It has been
successfully implemented in both the financial and none financial worlds
There is no such thing as a perfect or faultless technology, and Blockchain technology is one of
them. Let's take a look at some of the blockchain technology's benefits and drawbacks.
ADVANTAGES
i Transactions using blockchain technology are executed in a matter of minutes. Consider a bank
transaction to a person who has a different bank account. The transactions take at least two days to
complete. At this point, a person using crypto to conduct virtual transactions can complete a series
of transactions.

7. ii Every transaction is made public because it is an open source ledger. This eliminates the
possibility of deception. The block chain's integrity is supervised by kids who keep a watch on all
transactions.
iii Transactions using blockchain technology are executed in a matter of minutes. Consider a bank
transaction to a person who has a different bank account. The transactions take at least two days to
complete. At this point, a person using crypto to conduct virtual transactions can complete a series
of transactions.
DISADVANTAGES
i Some applications require the user's identification to be verified, and because there is no central
authority to ensure the user's identity, the creation of certain decentralized apps becomes a severe
difficulty.
Anonymity or the lack of user identity is a significant impediment that criminals exploit to conduct
unlawful transactions.
ii To offer consumers ownership over their cryptocurrency units, blockchain employs public-key (or
asymmetric) cryptography (or any other blockchain data). A private key is associated with each
blockchain address. The private key, while the address can be shared, should be kept private. Users
must use their private key to access their funds, thereby making them their own bank. If a user loses
their private key, their money is basically lost, and they have no recourse.
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME REASONS WHY
BLOCKCHAIN IS WORTH GETTING EXCITED ABOUT
1. Increases security and storage.
Cloud storage is a fantastic advancement. You, on the other hand, have no influence over the storage
infrastructure. It's in Google's, Dropbox's, Facebook's, or Apple's hands. And if you value your
privacy, this could be a problem. Because you'll require an encryption key to access your data, you
can be confident that only you will have access to it.
2. Huge Demand
Because Blockchain technology is a rapidly growing industry, there are numerous chances available
to you. Cryptocurrency is an example of a Blockchain-based application.
It is primarily used by startups and few well-known financial institutions.
If you believe you have the necessary talents to work in Blockchain and quickly adapt to the current
wave, look no further and brush up on your skills to take advantage of this incredible platform.
3. Being knowledgeable about blockchain puts you on the cutting edge of innovation.
You'll be able to operate blockchain technology, alter stagnant sectors, and develop enhanced
business models if you have capabilities in blockchain enabled business.
This skill set will not only help you grow into senior positions, but it will also put you at the
forefront of change. You might be the one to make decisions about company collaboration,

8. technological implementation, and supply chain reconfiguration using blockchain. You might also
help your company transition to a new era of cybersecurity, governance, and sustainability.
DISCUSSIONS AND CRITICS ABOUT BITCOIN AND
BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
1. Issues with Scalability
It deflates those who believe Bitcoin is a useful currency when the network can barely handle 7
transactions per second. Hyperledger can manage 10,000 transactions per second, while Visa can
handle 24,000 transactions per second.
These scaling difficulties cast doubt on blockchain's practical application. The overall number of
transactions per second is limited because each participating node must validate each transaction in
the network. A bitcoin transaction can take up to several hours to commit.
2. Costs of transactions and network speed
After being marketed as "virtually free" for the first several years of its existence, Bitcoin now has
significant transaction expenses.
It can only execute roughly seven transactions per second as of late 2016, and each transaction costs
about $0.20 and stores only 80 bytes of data. The majority of this expense is covered by energy
usage. There are relatively little odds that technological advancements would be able to fix this
problem. The storage problem, on the other hand, may be encompassed by the energy difficulties,
which cannot be remedied.
There's also the politically contentious topic of using the bitcoin block chain as a data storage
system rather than a transaction system.
Allow me to transport you back in time to a time before money when people obtained and
exchanged items by bartering. Without the use of money or a monetary medium, goods are
exchanged between two or more parties. Because there was no true concentration of power and no
over exploitation of natural resources back then, trade by better was incredible, but it was difficult
to measure value and lack of unity.
© 2022 Boluwatife Adeyeye