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Silk Road launched in February 2011 as the darknet’s first bitcoin-based marketplace. Within four months, it would be the darknet’s most notorious site whose reputation extended all the way to the U.S. Senate. The origins of the drugs marketplace can be traced back further, however, to a philosophical thread on the Bitcointalk forum. It was … Read more
Bitcoin and poker have a history that stretches back to the very start. Perhaps, even, to before the start of Bitcoin as we know it, for there is evidence that Satoshi had a background in poker. What’s beyond dispute is that in March 2010, the world’s first bitcoin poker tournament took place, with the nascent … Read more
Government dominance of human beings via slavery and violent economic oppression is as old as government itself. For thousands and thousands of years kings and rulers, usually held to be “appointed by God,” have used free, non-violent individuals as their tax farm livestock to exploit for economic gain and political power. Without individuals with the … Read more
The notion that anyone could solo mine bitcoin – on a CPU no less – seems positively quaint today. But in 2010, this method wasn’t just possible – it was the norm. With an exponentially lower hashrate, less competition and a 50 bitcoin block reward, there was enough pie for everyone to get a bite. … Read more
Today, bitcoin is so precious that its hodlers are prone to locking their keys away inside nuclear bunkers, bank vaults, and military grade hardware wallets. But things weren’t always that way. Back in the early days, bitcoin was deemed so undesirable that you would have struggled to give it away, while exchanging it for fiat … Read more
Since the very start, people have lost bitcoins due to human error. Mislaid wallets, forgotten passwords, broken hard drives, hacks, and scams have conspired to remove over 20% of all BTC from circulation by some estimates. The dubious accolade for the first major bitcoin loss goes to forum member Stone Man, who, on August 10, … Read more
There was something unusual about Bitcoin block 74638. It was Core developer Jeff Garzik who first spotted it, commenting on the “quite strange” transaction outputs, which stood at 92233720368.54 BTC apiece. That wasn’t meant to happen. Within an hour, another forum user had started a thread titled “overflow bug serious” in which he implored “We … Read more
“Hi everyone, I just put up a new bitcoin exchange. Please let me know what you think.” With those innocuous words, one of the most notorious sagas in Bitcoin’s early history began. The name of the exchange was Mt. Gox and it was to play a pivotal role in Bitcoin’s rise – for a while, … Read more
How much is one bitcoin worth? In fiat currency terms, that’s a constantly shifting answer, but ever since the beginning, the following has held true: one bitcoin is worth as much as the buyer is willing to pay. Today, that’s likely to be a few thousand dollars, but back in the day, the reverse was … Read more
Hacks and heists have been a threat for as long as bitcoin has been worth stealing. By 2011, as Bitcoin was easing into its second year of life and its first bubble, early cryptocurrency exchanges were bringing liquidity and price discovery to the nascent ecosystem. At the same time, they were providing an outlet for … Read more
