If it seems like everyone around you is trading bitcoin, you can attribute that to its consistently rising popularity. But, you should not take this new surge of participants to mean that cryptocurrency is new on the scene.
The first cryptocurrency, eCash, was developed in 1983 by David Chaum to enable users to transfer money anonymously. At the time of eCash’s development, only one bank in the United States implemented the system on a test basis. The banking industry’s hesitation to participate in new technology is ongoing today.
In 2008, twenty-five years after Chaum generated the first cryptocurrency, the financial industry in the United States collapsed, leaving banking customers with a sour taste in their mouths. This sudden distrust for banks created a space for alternative currencies to flourish. During this period, Bitcoin’s creator was inspired to build something new. An anonymous individual who goes by the name pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin in 2009, and the first Bitcoin purchase was made in 2010. Of all things, the first products bought with Bitcoin were two very expensive pizzas.
In the coming years, other alternative currencies came to market (though none have yet to compare to the popularity of Bitcoin). We’ll skip the time when new currencies popped up each year (there are currently 10,000 cryptocurrencies on the market) and move forward to 2019, when cryptocurrency went mainstream. That year, large companies like Microsoft started to throw their hats in the ring and give even more validity to the alternative currencies that were quickly growing in popularity.
All of this leads us to today. We’re in a strange limbo when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Many financial institutions still avoid it. I understand why. They see the risks associated with the inherent anonymity of the blockchain exchange. However, I don’t believe that burying our heads in the sand is the right way to solve this problem. Bad people indeed use crypto to commit crimes, and the only antidote to that is more regulation and oversight from the banking industry. We need to bring our expertise to the table to provide security to these flourishing currencies. In the coming years, I bet that we’ll see more financial services companies getting on board with cryptocurrencies, which will make them a more robust and safer investment.
You can walk into a local coffee shop any morning of the week and find a couple of people talking about cryptocurrency. Is it real? Is it safe? But what most people don’t realize is that this ship has already sailed. This month Blockchain.com announced that they have over 81 Million users. If you’re waiting for popular opinion to sway toward the legitimacy of crypto, the train is leaving the station.
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