• Home
  • Podcast
  • App
No Result
View All Result
Subscribe
×
sign in
  • Learn
    • All
    • Crypto Basics
    • Token Metrics Tutorials
    • Weekly Index Performance
    Bitcoin: Everything You Need To Know

    Bitcoin: Everything You Need To Know

    What is Web 3.0? Everything You Need to Know

    What is Web 3.0? Everything You Need to Know

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    Weekly Index Performance – May 26, 2022

    Weekly Index Performance – May 26, 2022

    NFTs Explained: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

    NFTs Explained: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

    Weekly Index Performance – April 27, 2022

    Weekly Index Performance – April 27, 2022

    When Does the Crypto Market Close?

    When Does the Crypto Market Close?

    Will Shiba Inu reach $1?

    Will Shiba Inu reach $1?

    How to Receive Crypto Alerts Through Token Metrics

    How to Receive Crypto Alerts Through Token Metrics

    • Crypto Basics
    • Weekly Performance
  • Market Analysis
    • All
    • Market Navigator
    • Market Update
    shanghai hard fork

    Shanghai Hard Fork – Investing Opportunities | Navigator

    The Bottom | Market Update

    The Bottom | Market Update

    The Metaverse Rally | Market Update

    The Metaverse Rally | Market Update

    The Dollar and DOGE| Market Update

    The Dollar and DOGE| Market Update

    Crypto Market Update

    Can Crypto Rally In October? | Market Update

    Crypto Rektember

    Can You Believe The Macro Shift ? Market Update

    Crypto Rektember

    From Rektember to a Brighter October | Market Update

    ethereum-its-time

    Ethereum: It’s Time | Market Update

    Europe is headed for a depression

    Europe is headed for a depression | Market Update

    • Market Update
    • Price Prediction
    • Market Navigator
  • Deep Dive
  • Hidden Gems
    • All
    • DeFi
    • Gaming and Metaverse
    • NFTs
    • Web 3
    Azuki NFTs

    Azuki | Hidden Gems – NFT

    LonelyPop

    LonelyPop, POTATOZ By 9GAG | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Moonrunners, Disco Kittiez | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Moonrunners, Disco Kittiez | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Evmos, Penumbra, Oasis Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    Evmos, Penumbra, Oasis Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    League Of Kingdoms, Aurory | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    League Of Kingdoms, Aurory | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    Orderly Network, zCloak Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    Orderly Network, zCloak Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    Sneakerheads, The Possessed NFT | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Sneakerheads, The Possessed NFT | Hidden Gems – NFT

    BitCraft Online, Earth from Another Sun | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    BitCraft Online, Earth from Another Sun | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    OnChainMonkey & RUNNER | Hidden Gems – NFTs

    OnChainMonkey & RUNNER | Hidden Gems – NFTs

    • DeFi
    • Gaming and Metaverse
    • NFTs
  • Code Reviews
  • Reports
    • All
    • Altcoin Quarterly
    • Awards and Ratings
    • News and Thought Leadership
    NFT Grade

    Introducing Token Metrics NFT Grade

    Token Metrics Research

    Introducing Token Metrics Research

    Research & Chill: 30% Token Metrics Discount

    Research & Chill: 30% Token Metrics Discount

    The Best Crypto News Sites of 2022

    The Best Crypto News Sites of 2022

    The Best Crypto Analysts of 2022

    The Best Crypto Analysts of 2022

    Token Metrics + CEX.IO Promotional Coupon

    Token Metrics + CEX.IO Promotional Coupon

    Partner plan

    NEW Token Metrics Partner Plan

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    Best Altcoins of 2021 | Altcoin Quarterly Report | Q4 2021

    Best Altcoins of 2021 | Altcoin Quarterly Report | Q4 2021

    • Altcoin Quaterly
    • Moon Awards
    • News and Thought Leadership
  • TV
  • Learn
    • All
    • Crypto Basics
    • Token Metrics Tutorials
    • Weekly Index Performance
    Bitcoin: Everything You Need To Know

    Bitcoin: Everything You Need To Know

    What is Web 3.0? Everything You Need to Know

    What is Web 3.0? Everything You Need to Know

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    Weekly Index Performance – May 26, 2022

    Weekly Index Performance – May 26, 2022

    NFTs Explained: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

    NFTs Explained: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

    Weekly Index Performance – April 27, 2022

    Weekly Index Performance – April 27, 2022

    When Does the Crypto Market Close?

    When Does the Crypto Market Close?

    Will Shiba Inu reach $1?

    Will Shiba Inu reach $1?

    How to Receive Crypto Alerts Through Token Metrics

    How to Receive Crypto Alerts Through Token Metrics

    • Crypto Basics
    • Weekly Performance
  • Market Analysis
    • All
    • Market Navigator
    • Market Update
    shanghai hard fork

    Shanghai Hard Fork – Investing Opportunities | Navigator

    The Bottom | Market Update

    The Bottom | Market Update

    The Metaverse Rally | Market Update

    The Metaverse Rally | Market Update

    The Dollar and DOGE| Market Update

    The Dollar and DOGE| Market Update

    Crypto Market Update

    Can Crypto Rally In October? | Market Update

    Crypto Rektember

    Can You Believe The Macro Shift ? Market Update

    Crypto Rektember

    From Rektember to a Brighter October | Market Update

    ethereum-its-time

    Ethereum: It’s Time | Market Update

    Europe is headed for a depression

    Europe is headed for a depression | Market Update

    • Market Update
    • Price Prediction
    • Market Navigator
  • Deep Dive
  • Hidden Gems
    • All
    • DeFi
    • Gaming and Metaverse
    • NFTs
    • Web 3
    Azuki NFTs

    Azuki | Hidden Gems – NFT

    LonelyPop

    LonelyPop, POTATOZ By 9GAG | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Moonrunners, Disco Kittiez | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Moonrunners, Disco Kittiez | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Evmos, Penumbra, Oasis Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    Evmos, Penumbra, Oasis Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    League Of Kingdoms, Aurory | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    League Of Kingdoms, Aurory | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    Orderly Network, zCloak Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    Orderly Network, zCloak Network | Hidden Gems – Web 3

    Sneakerheads, The Possessed NFT | Hidden Gems – NFT

    Sneakerheads, The Possessed NFT | Hidden Gems – NFT

    BitCraft Online, Earth from Another Sun | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    BitCraft Online, Earth from Another Sun | Hidden Gems – Gaming and Metaverse

    OnChainMonkey & RUNNER | Hidden Gems – NFTs

    OnChainMonkey & RUNNER | Hidden Gems – NFTs

    • DeFi
    • Gaming and Metaverse
    • NFTs
  • Code Reviews
  • Reports
    • All
    • Altcoin Quarterly
    • Awards and Ratings
    • News and Thought Leadership
    NFT Grade

    Introducing Token Metrics NFT Grade

    Token Metrics Research

    Introducing Token Metrics Research

    Research & Chill: 30% Token Metrics Discount

    Research & Chill: 30% Token Metrics Discount

    The Best Crypto News Sites of 2022

    The Best Crypto News Sites of 2022

    The Best Crypto Analysts of 2022

    The Best Crypto Analysts of 2022

    Token Metrics + CEX.IO Promotional Coupon

    Token Metrics + CEX.IO Promotional Coupon

    Partner plan

    NEW Token Metrics Partner Plan

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    NEW Token Metrics Crypto Market Indicators

    Best Altcoins of 2021 | Altcoin Quarterly Report | Q4 2021

    Best Altcoins of 2021 | Altcoin Quarterly Report | Q4 2021

    • Altcoin Quaterly
    • Moon Awards
    • News and Thought Leadership
  • TV
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home Learn Crypto Basics

The Wild Wild West ― Chasing Bitcoin

by The Token Metrics Team
2022/04/22
in Crypto Basics, Learn
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
wild-wild-west
0
SHARES
2
VIEWS

Welcome back everyone for our second chapter of Chasing Bitcoin, the Token Metrics blog that uses Bitcoin’s history to glean insights on its future. Starting with the present, bitcoin is still hovering above $60k at the time of writing and has a solid monthly TM grade of 80%. Our AI is optimistic for the next 30 days, and I don’t like to fade our AI. In today’s telling of the Bitcoin story, we’ll discuss some major additions to the bitcoin ecosystem including the advent of the first exchanges and the infamous Silk Road Marketplace. But before we can do this, no story of Bitcoin is complete without mentioning the first real-world purchase made with the currency.

On May 18, 2010, Lazlo Hanyecz posted on a message board offering to pay anyone 10,000 BTC to call Papa Johns and order two large pizzas to his address in Jacksonville, FL. 4 days later, after many jokes at his expense about him starving to death waiting for his pizza, Lazlo received his pies which were ordered by Jeremy Sturdivant. As promised, Hanyecz sent 10,000 BTC to Sturdivant. Today, those two pizzas are worth over $300 million per pie, making them the most expensive pizzas ever purchased. May 22nd is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day by bitcoiners all over the world.

A few months later we saw one of the first major bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, go live in July 2010. Founded by Jed McCaleb, he originally purchased the domain name to be used as a place for buyers and sellers to trade Magic: The Gathering Online trading cards. Hence the origin of the name, Mt. Gox, “Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange.” When Gox was founded the price of bitcoin was under $1 and in its heyday the exchange saw BTC prices over $100. By 2013, Mt. Gox was responsible for 70% of all bitcoin transactions and was the clear leader in terms of bitcoin exchanges. However, a strong start does not mean a strong finish or a lasting presence in crypto, especially during the wild-wild west-like times of the early 2010s. In a later post, we’ll discuss how Mt. Gox rapidly lost its dominance as a Bitcoin exchange and almost took the entire Bitcoin network down with it.

2010 proved to be a big year for Bitcoin as it was also the year Bitcoin legend Gavin Andreesen launched the first bitcoin faucet. In June, just before Mt. Gox was launched, Andreesen built a website that would dispense 5 BTC for free to anyone who visited the site and completed a Captcha response. Users were able to visit and redeem 5 BTC for free once per day! Andreesen knew that BTC was almost impossible to obtain for the majority of internet users and he knew people needed to get skin in the game for the network to grow. With this knowledge, Andreesen determined that he would donate 1,100 BTC from his own wallet, to begin with. Eventually, other early bitcoin adopters and a few whales donated their BTC to the faucet and by the time the faucet was taken down at the beginning of 2011, nearly 20,000 bitcoin had passed through Andreseen’s wallet. Most of these probably weren’t hodled until the present day, and many were sold on Mt. Gox, but the faucet was still massively successful in onboarding people to the Bitcoin network.

Perhaps the most infamous, but also one of the most important parts of the Bitcoin story is that of the Silk Road Marketplace. Ross Ulbricht, a Texas man with a degree in physics and an anarchist world-view, launched the Silk Road in February 2011 under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts” based on the novel and film The Princess Bride. The marketplace used Tor browser technology to allow buyers and sellers to view and shop for black market goods anonymously. There were over 10,000 items sold on the Silk Road for bitcoin, and over 70% of these products were illegal drugs. In total, the Silk Road processed over 1.2 million transactions and revenues from these sales totaled over 9.5 million bitcoin, creating over 600,000 bitcoin in commissions for Ulbricht and other admin. So while the Silk Road is considered by some to be a stain on the Bitcoin network, it was responsible for a significant portion of the transactions on the network during the period and was proof that Bitcoin could handle the demands of a major online marketplace.

That brings this chapter of Chasing Bitcoin to a close. Thank you for reading and make sure to tune in next time when we talk about the first BTC halving event and the launch of the great American crypto exchange, Coinbase.

Tags: BitcoinBlockchainBTCcryptoCrypto BasicsCryptocurrenciesCryptocurrencyFreeSilk RoadWild Wild West
The Token Metrics Team

The Token Metrics Team

Token Metrics is an AI-driven cryptocurrency research and analytics platform.

Related Posts

Help

Market Landing Page Tutorial

January 6, 2023
NFT Grade
News and Thought Leadership

Introducing Token Metrics NFT Grade

August 18, 2022
The Ghost of Lehman Brothers |  Market Update
Market Analysis

The Ghost of Lehman Brothers | Market Update

July 11, 2022
Next Post
The Best Crypto Portfolio Trackers/ Apps of 2021

The Best Crypto Portfolio Trackers/ Apps of 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

COMPANY

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap

7600 Chevy Chase Drive, Suite 300, Austin, Texas, 78752, USA
Email: info@tokenmetrics.com | Tel: +1-888-908-6536

DISCLAIMER

Token Metrics Media LLC is a regular publication of information, analysis, and commentary focused especially on blockchain technology and business, cryptocurrency, blockchain-based tokens, market trends, and trading strategies.

Token Metrics Media LLC does not provide individually tailored investment advice and does not take a subscriber’s or anyone’s personal circumstances into consideration when discussing investments; nor is Token Metrics Advisers LLC registered as an investment adviser or broker-dealer in any jurisdiction.

Information contained herein is not an offer or solicitation to buy, hold, or sell any security. The Token Metrics team has advised and invested in many blockchain companies. A complete list of their advisory roles and current holdings can be viewed here: https://tokenmetrics.com/disclosures/

Token Metrics Media LLC relies on information from various sources believed to be reliable, including clients and third parties, but cannot guarantee the accuracy and completeness of that information. Additionally, Token Metrics Media LLC does not provide tax advice, and investors are encouraged to consult with their personal tax advisors.

All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of money you invest, and past performance does not guarantee future performance. Ratings and price predictions are provided for informational and illustrative purposes, and may not reflect actual future performance.

Copyright © 2022 - Token Metrics - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Learn
    • Crypto Basics
    • Weekly Performance
  • Market Analysis
    • Market Update
    • Price Prediction
    • Market Navigator
  • Deep Dive
  • Hidden Gems
    • DeFi
    • Gaming and Metaverse
    • NFTs
  • Code Reviews
  • Reports
    • Altcoin Quaterly
    • Moon Awards
    • News and Thought Leadership
  • TV

Copyright © 2022 Token Metrics All Rights Reserved