Is This Why Bitcoin Became So Huge?

is the currency of the day. If you mention ‘cryptocurrency’ to a lay person, they may act confused and unsure of what you’re talking about. Say ‘Bitcoin’ though, and its likely the same person, will at least understand you are referring to a sort of digital money. Whilst many people still struggle to understand the concept behind the blockchain and cryptography, the premise of Bitcoin is becoming common knowledge - it’s a form of digital money that is not controlled by a government, it is used as a currency and as a form of investment, on a very simple level at least. Livemint.com have published an article which discusses the rise of Bitcoin, namely in how it became so expensive. Let’s face it, the value of Bitcoin is the driving force that has allowed it to hit mainstream news, if it didn’t rack up value and appear to be the most attractive investment opportunity since the industrial revolution, Bitcoin would still very much be an underground entity. The popularity of the cryptocurrency markets have a lot to thank Bitcoin for. According to Livemint.com, Bitcoin has three key phases to thank for its rise in value, plus a third phase to look forward to. Firstly, the discovery phase around 2010 saw the notion of Bitcoin discovered, this gave the currency a value, something it had not technically experienced before 2010, despite being around prior to then. Next up, the acceptance phase. Between 2011 and 2016, Bitcoin started to become accepted through listings on financial exchanges, gaining greater intrinsic value during the process. Through acceptance, came the creation of new cryptocurrencies, boosting the markets and in turn, giving Bitcoin a new value. According to Livemint.com:

“By this time, many notions about how to improve bitcoin appeared, but not all of them could be implemented. Some people from the community started their own projects and altcoins came into existence. Altcoins are cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. A majority of altcoins are forks of bitcoin with small uninteresting changes. Coins such as ripple, litecoin, primecoin and namecoin came into existence.”

Because of this new acceptance, Bitcoin was able to generate more value, in turn generating the media attention that has given Bitcoin a whole new popularity, leading us to, the meteoric rise of 2017. According to Livemint.com

“Bitcoin was the marquee attraction for new investors given its incredible rise from $900 in January 2017 to $20,000 by December 2017.”

Check out the full article from Livemint.com for yourself, here- https://www.livemint.com/Money/puy9udX8UKzsC6vxtZCeQM/How-bitcoin-became-expensive.html- Overall, Bitcoin has spearheaded a crypto-revolution that has of course made at least the concept of cryptocurrency mainstream. Through inspiring the creation of new cryptocurrencies and altcoins, the markets will continue to grow and thus, mainstream adoption may one day be achieved.