We always talk about bitcoin, the prices, the future of bitcoin and more. However, do you know the following 15 interesting facts about Bitcoin?
Where is the first bitcoin in the world now?
On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block of bitcoin on a server in Helsinki. This block was called “Genesis Block(Block #O)” and the first 50 bitcoins were issued in the world.
Due to technical reasons, it has been stored in the address of receiving block reward since then without any practical application. Over the past 9 years, people have continuously paid tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto. As of today, this address has accepted 1280 transaction with a total of 16.88 bitcoins!
How to read bitcoin amount elegantly?
Instead of being a real coin, bitcoin is a string of numbers recorded in the netbook. There are no physical coins, so we’d better not describe it with the unit “piece”. Adding “bitcoin” directly after the number should be the correct way of reading and writing.
However, compared with the description of US dollar and Euro with “$” and “€”, the word “bitcoin” seems to be hard to be described. Therefore, the elegant and professional expression in the industry is to directly use its English unit symbol, BTC!
For instance:
Can anybody refuse to make friends with a millionaire with 1000 BTC? !
Wrong expression:
0.5 bit, 2 pieces of bitcoins, a pile of bitcoins
What is the least amount of bitcoin?
1USD=100 cents
So, 1 Bitcoin=???
In reality, we can’t buy a toothpick with 0.1 cent because there is no such a banknote or coin; but we can buy a beef burger with 0.0005 bitcoin (BTC).
Because bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, its data structure is accurate to 8 decimal places. In other words, the smallest unit of bitcoin is one billionth, that is, 0.00000001BTC. This unit of currency is called “Satoshi”. Yes! It comes from the name of Satoshi Nakamoto!
Therefore, when you own 0.05 bitcoin, you can declare proudly, “I have 5 million Satoshi!”
The total amount of bitcoin is actually more than 21 million!
We can see the statement that “the total amount of bitcoin is 21 million”, but in fact, after rigorous mathematical calculations, the exact value of the total issue of bitcoin is 20999999.9769BTC.
Bitcoin is issued simultaneously with the generation of blocks. At first, 50BTC was issued for each block, but this number will be halved for every 210,000 blocks, so the total of 21 million is only the result of limit summation under this issuance mechanism. The difference with the actual value results from the fact that in the 33rd halving, the new coin issue of each block will break through the smallest unit “Satoshi” and cannot be recorded. Therefore, no more new bitcoin will be issued in the future!
How many bitcoins exist in the world now?
Usually only the central bank is responsible for the real circulation of the national currency. However, in the bitcoin network, anyone can check the current total issuance and all transactions of bitcoin any time. In this respect, bitcoin is a rather open currency system.
As of today, more than 17.15 million bitcoins have been issued. According to the theoretical issue rate of 1800 bitcoins per day, before August 2019, we can confidently declare that there are now more than 17 million bitcoins in circulation. However, it’s pitiful that about 2 to 4 million bitcoins are estimated to have withdrawn from circulation because the holders have lost the key. All these lost bitcoins are worth over US$10 billion now.
Read more: Essential Skills in Cryptocurrency: Using Bitcoin Blockchain Browser
What’s the first step to own bitcoin?
Registering bitcoin wallet is the first step to get rid of the mediocrity to become the bitcoin holder!
The wallet is a tool, software or device to create account for currency holder and keep private key. There are hundreds of bitcoin wallets in the world. The supplier reliability and account security are key criteria for making a choice.
After registration, you will own your account on the bitcoin network, which can generate unlimited bitcoin addresses. Any address can accept the transfer of others. You should constantly change the new address to trade on the network to hide the exchange of funds.
Read more: Series articles on bitcoin wallet at EastShore
What? No bitcoin in the bitcoin wallet!
Bitcoin has never been stored in the wallet. When you want to switch to a wallet developed by another supplier, all you need to do is to transfer the private key old bitcoin wallet created for you into the new wallet.
The reason is that all bitcoin only exists in the bitcoin network. The wallet is only the hub connecting the user and the bitcoin network. It contains the private key of account. Whoever owns the private key will control the bitcoin account. Any wallet can operate on this account after the private key has been transferred. Therefore, in the process of the wallet registration, the users will usually be reminded to remember the private key or mnemonic key words, and keep them in a place where it cannot be stolen.
How to retrieve lost bitcoin?
There are some stories about the loss of bitcoin. That’s definitely one of the major tragedies in the world. Those who lose the coin will regret all their lives and the people who hear the story will also feel very pitiful. The loss of bitcoin mentioned here means that the holder has lost the control of the account forever because he has forgotten the key or the backup key.
However, bitcoin is a decentralized monetary system based on network without currency issuing and depositing institutions. Those who lose the coins cannot apply for a loss or reset the password. Therefore, unless they can remember or retrieve the key again, the bitcoin in their account will sleep forever.
But the good news is that although the bitcoin can’t be used, those who lose them still have the ownership and others cannot steal them away!
Can bitcoin be brought with money?
If someone asked years ago that how to buy bitcoin, everyone would answer, “Silly?” However, even today when people talk about the blockchain, it’s still frequently asked by the friends around!
According to the announcement issued by the People’s Bank of China on September 4 last year, no platform should engage in the exchange between RMB and “cryptocurrency”. Since then, bitcoin has become a scarce asset for the people. But there are still ways to obtain bitcoin, such as find a holder of private transaction, accept it as a gift or invest in bitcoin mining, even participate in a game with bitcoin bonus! Remember, you need to have a bitcoin receiving address first!
Those who don’t understand bitcoin are talking about the blockchain!
In the past years, the word “blockchain” has become very popular in China. The central banks and financial institutions were talking about it and the illegal multi-level marketing (MLM) organizations also got involved. Soon, a mysterious organization without threshold was rapidly growing in the society, which was called the “coin circle”!
Although many people don’t know the name of the founder of Ethereum, they can memorize the projects of Li Xiaolai. Without the technology background, they often talk about “consensus” and “public chain”; they can’t do without mobile phones and the community; they even live in the illusion that they are capital tycoons themselves.
Warm tips for the friends outside the circle: At the beginning of any new industry, there are always many “liars from the Silicon Valley” and “wolves from the Wall Street”. The bubble has expanded the dream of overnight rich, but it must be cautious to make investment!
Blockchain in emergency! ICO stuck in this step!
The simple, easy-to-remember currency symbol will definitely add points to the image of ICO project! At present, the top one in the industry is 2-3 English letters, the low one is 4 letters, 5 letters are also adopted for fun! However, there are tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies in the world, but the letters available are getting less and less. It costs a lot of efforts to choose a name for the newly-issued currency. LOL.
Good letters have been used for better understanding, such as: GOOD, FUN, WIN, HOT, TRUE. Unexpectedly, even the cat and dog also have become the name of coins: such as CAT, DOGE, PIGGY, BIRDS. There are also attractive name of coins: WC, OMG, BTW, GOD, PPT, CNN and BNB.
The US government also gets involved in bitcoin business!
Bitcoin has nourished the fertile earth of dark network for long. Now, we will talk about the famous incident named “Silk Road”.
In February 2011, 27-year-old American, Ross UIbricht, built a black-market platform called Silk Road based on his drug trafficking experience. The platform only accepted bitcoin as the payment. Within the two and a half years, more than 1.2 million transactions had been completed with the total amount of more than 610,000 bitcoins, which was worth about US$1.2 billion at that time. The platform extracted US$80 million as the commission.
In October 2013, UIbricht was arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles and sentenced to life imprisonment. The 144,000 bitcoins on his account were confiscated and auctioned by the government in batches for the sale of financial supplement.
Who is the first person in the world to trade with Satoshi Nakamoto?
On January 12, 2009, at the 171st block of bitcoin blockchain (block height 170), the first bitcoin transaction was done in the world! The capital for this transaction came from the mining award Satoshi Nakamoto received at the 9# block. He transferred 10 of the 50 bitcoins to another address!
In order to test the trading of bitcoin, Nakamoto Satoshi transferred 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney. That was the first transfer in the history of bitcoin(block height 170).
In chaos! So many people start to imitate bitcoin?
There are thousands of cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology in the world today. For the public, many people only heard of bitcoin while feel unfamiliar with other currencies. Then, how do they call them in the chat?
Now, I will tell you that the term “altcoin” now is used to refer to other cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. It is translated from English worlds “alternative coin” as a neutral concept. However, since “altcoin” in Chinese is a derogatory word, it often brings misunderstanding, even many media use it with the wrong concept and confuse it with air coin, MLM coin and vicious coin, so it is a very frustrated case of translation.
Reveal! Who is the bitcoin millionaire?
Bitcoin prices has risen a thousand times in the past five years, so that many early bitcoin investors have become the millionaires and capital tycoons, such as the former teacher in New Oriental, Li Xiaolai, the former salesman in beef factory, Guo Hongcai. They all claim to own 6-digit-number bitcoin.
However, in the bitcoin world there are more invisible millionaires. For example, Satoshi Nakamoto won more than 1 million bitcoins in the early days of the genesis period. Although the deposit amount at each address can be found in the blockchain, bitcoin holders often distribute the assets into multiple addresses, so it is impossible to accurately count how many people have owned tens of thousands of bitcoins!
Read more: Address Rich List on btc.com
What? “Safe and reliable” bitcoin also has loopholes?
In fact, just like the development of other issues, the bitcoin network is still in the process of continuous improvement.
On August 6, 2010, a loophole was found and maliciously exploited to generate 184 billion bitcoins (the total amount of bitcoin is even less than 21 million!) and send to two bitcoin addresses. Fortunately, the loophole was fixed within a few hours and illegal transactions were removed, which then promoted the first upgrade and version updating of bitcoin network protocol. Therefore, good better best, never let it rest. The so-called security is relative and bitcoin is also marching for more security in continuous upgrading.