The Bitcoin protocol was launched ten years ago today, making the first and #1 digital currency a decade old!

Ten years ago today, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Genesis Block of the Bitcoin blockchain – setting in motion a decade of digital money.

Bitcoin’s origins as a form of peer-to-peer money that stands outside of the conventional financial system are embedded in the Genesis block, which incorporates the message:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks

Remember that, 10 years ago, the global banking system was facing meltdown as a result of the Global Financial Crisis that was sparked by banks mis-selling mortgages, introducing risk that spread like a cancer through the system. Today, as conventional finance slowly integrates with crypto, it is once again facing a crash. Crypto, meanwhile, is only gaining momentum.

Since its beginnings as an experiment in computer science and economics, through its years as the money of libertarians and an alternative for gold bugs, the currency of the darkweb and a plaything for speculators, Bitcoin has continued to go from strength to strength. Despite its wild price swings, the core protocol is secure: Bitcoin has never been hacked. The fundamentals of hashrate and the cryptography that underpin it are rock solid. And so are the adoption statistics.

Interest continues to grow. Active addresses are on the rise. Hashrate is ticking up. SegWit and Lightning Network are seeing increased use. The network supported $410 billion of transactions in 2018. The number of bitcoin ATMs has doubled in the past year. Failing states and those experiencing a currency crisis are turning to bitcoin to store and move value.

In short, behind the price slump, Bitcoin the protocol and bitcoin the asset are strong. Price does not equal value and the two rarely coincide. As we go into 2019 and bitcoin’s second decade, we need to keep that in mind. At Inferno, we plan to be on the right side of history with this one.

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