The concept of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), or a cryptographically secured chain of ‘blocks,’ has been known since the late 90s when Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta first described explained the technology in their work.

The two expert cryptographers took their blockchain experiment a step further by adding Merkle Trees to their block design and could now save a vast array of data in a single block.

And Satoshi Got Inspired

Of a truth, Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta were the first cryptographers to shed light on the concept of distributed ledgers.

However, Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous programmer, or group of programmers, interested the entire world in blockchain technology by building Bitcoin upon it in 2009.

As stated in the Bitcoin white paper

“The world’s first cryptocurrency was developed to ease trade and commerce transactions by enabling people to send payments in a trustless peer-to-peer manner, without third-party constraints.”

Although in its early days, it was only geeks and tech experts that entirely understood the workings of the world’s flagship crypto, as always, little drops of water form a mighty ocean and today the entire crypto markets is worth of over $260 billion.

“Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from inherent weaknesses of the trust based model,” another excerpt from the white paper reads.

It’s a fact that the crypto market valuation is a far cry from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which is worth trillions of dollars.

But because digital currencies are less than a decade old, a $260 billion total market cap isn’t an entirely poor performance if we also consider the regulatory pressure the ecosystem is facing at the moment.

As such, the author firmly believes that if the crypto world is left to thrive, it could be worth more than the NYSE within a few decades to come.

Bitcoin Made Blockchain a Superstar

Cryptography has been in existence for thousands of years ago, but if not for bitcoin, thousands or even millions of people around the world today wouldn’t be interested in the distributed ledger technology.

Although corporations like IBM and a handful of others started experimenting with the distributed ledger technology before the price of bitcoin hit the moon, thousands of fintech startups only caught the blockchain fever when the pioneer crypto started creating new millionaires overnight.

But never forget that when it was created in 2009, authorities ignored bitcoin altogether, thinking it was just another technology fad.

However, the blockchain-powered currency has become more than merely a payment solution: It has turned into a fevered revolution. And with everyone looking to catch the next wave of second-generation cryptocurrencies, some are willing to skirt the law.

It is for this latter point why some world authorities are doing all they can to stifle the growth of the market, or at least curtail as much illicit leveraging as possible.

Although the crypto ecosystem is still in its nascent stages, it’s an undeniable fact that from Europe to Asia, all the way down to Africa, these innovations have impacted a countless number of lives positively over the years.

Even with its highly volatile nature, cryptocurrencies gives freedom to the masses, and this is part of the reasons why banks and domineering nation states see bitcoin as a threat.

The Bottom Line

Just like blockchain technology, bitcoin has come to stay. The exodus of crypto-related businesses to regions where there are favorable laws for digital currencies has already started, and this migration is only expected to continue.

In a few years from now, countries like Malta, Germany, Canada and some others who have a soft stance on the subject will become home to millions of blockchain and crypto firms while states with draconian laws will be left behind in the innovation.

For now, the storm still rages on as the bears dominate the markets. No one knows how low prices could fall, but one thing the author is hundred percent sure of is that bitcoin will be here forever, so just Hodl on.

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Author: BTCManager.com