Prices

Cryptocurrency Prices: History of Bitcoin, How Pricing and Transactions Work

Bitcoin Price History: Bitcoin (BTC) Crypto Market Timeline

Bitcoin Reaches its 5 Month Peak – April 23rd, 2019 – $5,599

Bitcoin has managed to shrug off the initial losses from last month and managed to reach a major high point of $5,598 as of April the 23rd. This has been one of the first times that Bitcoin managed to successfully rise above the $5,500 price point clocked in November of last year. This marks a five month record high for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Pushes Above the $5,000 Marker – 10th of April 2019: $5,412

Bitcoin has, as of this point in Early April, managed to undertake an unprecedented surge in its price point. Putting this in perspective, it managed to push above the $4,200 mark and rapidly blasting past $5,000 within 48 hours. After it had begun the month at $4,152, the price of Bitcoin had managed to sit on a strong $5,412 by this date in April.

Bitcoin Manages to Conclude March at Above the $4,000 Margin – March 31st: $4,152

Throughout the course of March, Bitcoin had managed to enjoy a white hot streak of performance after it endured a sluggish if optimistic beginning to the year. Successfully ending March on a more positive margin of above $4,100.

Bitcoin Maintains a 10 Percent Incremental Rise Month Over Month – February 28th, 2019: $3,867

Bitcoin had commenced February just below $3,500 before ending February 10 percent higher than it began. Meaning that, by the end of February, it had closed at approximately $3,867.

CBOE Officially Withdraws its Bitcoin ETF Proposal Before Resubmitting – January 31st, 2019: $3,461

CBOE, in partnership with VanEck and SolidX, officially withdrew its proposal to create and launch a Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund as of late January, in light of fears regarding the prolonged government shutdown which begun in the United States causing the cancellation of its proposal anyway.

By the end of January (31st to be exact), the CBOE had officially resubmitted its Bitcoin ETF. There are those that believe that this VanEck and SolidX Bitcoin ETF has the highest likelihood of being the very first BTC ETF that will be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bitcoin Starts the Year Below the $4,000 Mark on January 1st, 2019: $3,773

Bitcoin made a start of 2019 underneath the previous $4,000 high level. Starting off at the price point of $3,773 and a total market cap of $66 billion. The month was a negative one for Bitcoin, dropping to a low of $3,468 by the close of January.

Bitcoin Mining Becomes Unprofitable – December 3rd, 2018: $3,469

According to research from Morgan Stanley in 2018, the profitability of mining ceased at any value below $8,600. By this point from the past few years, difficulty, in conjunction with the chronic non-profitability of Bitcoin conspired to hammer the value of Bitcoin.

For the second time in its history, Mining difficulty fell by 15 percent in order to accommodate the depreciation in value and support miners.

Bitcoin Cash Officially Commits Hard Fork – Creating ABC and Satoshi's Vision (SV): November 15th, 2018: $4,275

After a series of disagreements and very incendiary arguments among core developers operating within Bitcoin Cash, officially completed a hard fork. Thus resulting in the creation Of Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin SV. This then resulted in a hash war which would last several months with Bitcoin Cash ABC emerging as the dominant currency.

It was during this same span of time that the price of each of these tokens violently fluctuated, having the additional knock-on effect of hitting Bitcoin prices, causing it to drop to $4,275.

Bitcoin's Whitepaper Celebrates its Tenth Birthday, October 31st, 2018: $6,415

The Bitcoin community officially celebrated its tenth birthday since the launch of Bitcoin's whitepaper back in 2007. It was over this span of time that bitcoin's price managed to steadily grow over the days prior to this anniversary, resulting in a total of 5 percent in growth over this week.

Fidelity Officially Launches its own Crypto Trading Solution For Institutional Investors: October 15th, 2018: $6,497

While Bitcoin has sustained a bad number of weeks, Fidelity provided a desperately needed shot of financial B12 to the market with the announcement of Fidelity Digital Assets – which operates as an enterprise level custodial service for financial entities that are interested in investing in cryptocurrencies. Because of this new entrant, Bitcoin's price rose sharply over the weeks.

Cryptocurrency Exchange, Zaif Falls Victim to a $60 Million Hack, September 18th, 2018: $6,539

Zaif, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan officially lost approximately $60 million worth of various crypto assets during a hack. This, in turn, had a knock-on effect of pushing Bitcoin prices into recession, reaching below $6,000 before rallying.

Goldman Sachs Announces it is Dropping its Plans to Launch a Bitcoin Based Trading Desk – September 5th, 2018

While the company had begun and sustained the exploration of launching a Bitcoin trading platform for the majority of 2018, Goldman Sachs officially announced that it would be dropping its plans to launch a desk. For many investors, they have blamed the ongoing bear market for the diminishing interest from Goldman Sachs. Because of this announcement, Bitcoin prices continued to fall.

SEC announces Decision to Delay on Bitcoin ETF Ruling – August 7th, 2018: $6,366

What came off as a surprise decision for some in the Crypto trading world, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it would be exercising its right to delay its decision on several proposed Bitcoin ETFs that had since been proposed to the regulatory agencies.

As a result of this news, the value of Bitcoin continued to plummet, with investors enduring a pessimistic climate that no ETF would never be approved.

Intercontinental Exchange Officially Announced the Launch of Bakkt: August 3rd, 2018: $6,337

The parent company of the internationally known New York Stock Exchange – the Intercontinental Exchange [ICE] among a number of other exchanges announced the launch of a Cryptocurrency startup known as Bakkt. Backed by the likes of Microsoft, Starbucks and a number of other big corporate names.

Bakkt had the underlying goal of appealing to institutional investors through a legitimate market for Bitcoin.

The Securities And Exchange Commission Rejects the Gemini Bitcoin ETF Proposal by the Winklevoss Twins for the Second Time – July 26th, 2018: $7,275

The Security and Exchange Commission officially rejects an ETF proposal from the company owned by the Winklevoss Twins. This is the second time that the proposal was rejected by the SEC, citing that the markets were still in a perpetual immaturity, making them a non-conducive environment for an Exchange Traded Fund.

The SEC expressed a particular concerned regarding the price manipulation. After a few days of good momentum from the market, Bitcoin's value depreciated.

Blackrock Announced Intent to Explore Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin Related Fund, July 16th, 2018: $8,227

It was made widely public through the news online that one of the world's largest investment fund managers – Blackrock – had officially set up a working group in order to examine the prospect of a crypto and / or Bitcoin related fund. The Chief Executive Officer of Blackrock would go on to confirm the report during an interview which took place days after with Reuters.

While Blackrock has yet to launch any kind of fund of this kind, the value of Bitcoin managed to rise significantly thanks to this news.

Facebook Announced Broader Ban on Cryptocurrency Related Adverts: June 26th, 2018: $6,656

Facebook announced that it would be reversing its previous ban on cryptocurrency related advertising which was initially announced back during the beginning of the year. During this time, Bitcoin's value managed to rise ahead of this news, with investors theorizing that the bearish trend for Bitcoin was over.

Cryptocurrency Exchange – Bithumb – Was Hacked, June 20th, 2018: $5,928

Operating within South Korea, Bithumb was officially hacked, resulting in the loss of over $31 million worth of various crypto assets. In light of this news, Bitcoin decreased significantly over this month, making the second quarter of this year one of the worst on record.

The US Commodities Futures Trading Commission Files Subpoenas Against Four Cryptocurrency Exchanges, June 11th, 2018: $6,709

The United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission officially filed and submitted Four subpoenas to the international crypto exchanges – Bitstamp, Kraken, ItBit and Coinbase. The subpoenas demanded a broader explanation about potential market manipulation.

It was in the aftermath of these legal proceedings, it was revealed that the majority of these crypto exchanges were, in fact, engaged in a high level of wash trading along with other manipulative strategies. These include a number of more well known, reputable and regulated crypto exchanges like Coinbase.

The United States Justice Department Officially Launched Criminal Probe Into the Allegations of Bitcoin Price Manipulation, May 24th, 2018: $7,609

It was made official that the United States Justice Department has launched a new criminal probe into whether or not cryptocurrency exchanges were participating in the manipulation of crypto prices through the application of underhanded tactics like spoofing, Pump and Dump methods and wash orders.

Prosecutors in South Korea Raided UpBit, May 11th, 2018: $8,372

Known as one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in operation within South Korea, Upbit was subject to a raid by legal prosecutors under suspicions that it was conducting fraud to some capacity.

The overall cost of Bitcoin fell by 5.5 percent to $8,511 in light of this news before falling further downwards to hit lower support of $8,372 as of the end of the week.

Goldman Sachs Begins exploration of Launching of Bitcoin Trading Solution, May 2nd, 2018: $8,729

It was reported by the New York Times that Goldman Sachs, the International financial company was exploring the prospect of launching a bitcoin trading platform. The creation of this service would allow for clients of Goldman Sachs to conduct trades of Bitcoin from within their already operational investment accounts.

Twitter Launches Ban on Cryptocurrency Advertisements, March 26th, 2018: $7,127

Following in the wake of decisions made by both Facebook and Google, Twitter went on to announce that it will be imposing a ban on Cryptocurrency related and Initial Coin Offering Advertisements. The only way that it would remove this ban is once it clarifies its policies.

Google Announces Ban on Cryptocurrency Advertisements, March 14th, 2018: $8,570

Google became the second major multinational company to impose a ban on cryptocurrency advertisements and Ads for Initial Coin Offerings. Google also provided a full range of crypto specific terms within its broader ‘bad advertisements' policy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Requires new and Existing Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Register, March 7th, 2018: $8,344

It was made clear through the reiteration that crypto exchanges are under legal obligation to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission if the intention to do business and operate within the United States.

Facebook Implements new Ban on Cryptocurrency Adverts, January 31st, 2018: $8,211

The Social Media giant, Facebook, officially unveiled its new ban against cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offerings within the platform. This decision was made after a large volume of complaints regarding ICO fraud, malware due to Phishing sites using crypto as incentive, and a range of other scams.

Coincheck Announces Freeze of any Withdrawals From the Platform After Falling Victim to Largest Hack of Bitcoin on Record, January 26th, 2018: $8,775

One of the largest known crypto exchanges operating within Japan officially halted all withdrawals after being subject to the single largest hack on record. Attackers had managed to vanish with approximately 123 million dollars worth of XRP, and 500 million NEM.

These losses totaled more than 600 million dollars stolen. The crypto attack against Coincheck is the single largest in the history of cryptocurrencies.

80 percent of the Total Supply of Bitcoin Has Been Mined, January 13th, 2018: $8,776

Spanning a lifespan of less than a decade by this point since the genesis block of BTC was mined, nearly 80 percent of all known Bitcoin has since been mined.

Priced undergo Decline Thanks to Regulatory Proceedings Within Korea, January 8th, 2018: $10,685

Within the space of a night, CoinMarketCap suddenly removed price forecasts and analytics related to cryptocurrency exchanges operating within South Korea, causing a dramatic fall in Bitcoin sales, panicking investors as a result.

Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist and Investor is Buying Up Large Numbers of Bitcoin, According to Reports, January 2nd, 2018: $13,870

Reports disclosed at this time demonstrate that the Silicon Valley based Venture Capitalist, Peter Thiel has allegedly bought millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin as of the beginning of this year, according to major news sources. According to further reports, his already existing Founder Fund was allegedly valued at hundreds of millions of dollars by the beginning of 2018.

South Korea Muses Over a Wider Shut Down of Cryptocurrency Exchanges in the Country, December 28th, 2017: $17,163.38

After a surge of very positive momentum for Bitcoin and its investors, Regulatory and financial authorities in South Korea worked to dampen further enthusiasm by suggesting a new raft of financial regulations against the country's cryptocurrency exchanges. Regulatory justify these actions as being in light of concerns about the drastic overheating of crypto positions: “cryptocurrency speculation has been irrationally overheated in Korea”.

Bitcoin Manages to Reach its all Time High Value, December 18th, 2017: $19,783

Today marks the day that Bitcoin manages to reach an all time high value point at approximately $19,783. This is a record peak that has not been matched or surpassed to date.

CBOE Introduces Bitcoin Futures Contracts, December 11th, 2017: $17,010.53

The announcement by CBOE regarding the launch of its Bitcoin futures contracts caused the price of Cryptocurrencies to surge dramatically upwards, reaching an all time high value during Mid December. This massive surge was so dramatic that it resulted in the temporary halt to crypto trading in order to try and calm down the futures markets. CBOE in the meantime, announced the launch of its own futures contract after its competitor – CME – launched its own futures product.

Segregated Witness Proposal (SegWit2x) Officially Cancelled, November 8th, 2017: $7,844

Bitcoin core developers officially put into schedule its own upgrade package for November 16th. This was known as Segregated Witness 2x (SegWit2x). This was followed by a sudden falling away of support for the range of proposals, leading it to be cancelled.

CME Introduces and Launches its own Bitcoin Futures Contract, October 31st, 2017: $7,255

The CME, otherwise known as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced its intention to launch a Bitcoin Futures contract by the . final quarter of 2017. This represented one of the first major institutions to become interested in . the world of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin as a viable investment tool.

It was in light of this news that Bitcoin begun the month surging to a record high of $6,601, meaning that it also managed to hit an all time high market cap of approximately $110 billion. In light of this announcement by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, its rival, the Chicago Board of Exchange also announced that it would be launching of a Bitcoin futures contract of its own shortly after.

Bitcoin Manages to Break Past the $5,000 Value Marker for the First Time, October 13th, 2017: $5,943

While the Cryptocurrency begun the year at a price point of $966, Bitcoin has been continuing on its strong performance, hitting an all time high value of $5,243. Successfully breaking through its $5,000 value point for the first time.

Chinese Bitcoin Crypto Exchanges Undergo Massive Shutdown, September 15th, 2017: $3,714

All China based cryptocurrency exchanges undergo widespread shut down as ordered by Chinese authorities. This immediately created wider spread panic across the entire industry, sending the price of Bitcoin downward.

JP Morgan, Chase's CEO – Jamie Dimon condemns Bitcoin as a ‘Fraud', September 12th, 2017: $3,807

The highly outspoken Co-founder and CEO of JP Morgan Chase and Co – Jamie Dimon made his opinions about Bitcoin pretty clear to his employees and investors across the world when he said that he would fire any employees that proved “stupid enough to buy bitcoin”.

Along with these comments about Bitcoin, he would go on to call Bitcoin a fraud of a currency, arguing that, for investors would not “end well' for those getting themselves deep into crypto. The price of Bitcoin was nowhere near the kind of negative reactions that it had felt in other situations, with many investors merely shrugging off that CEO's statements.

China Officially Bans Initial Coin Offerings, September 3rd, 2017: $4,224

With the emergence of ICO in popularity over the span of 2017, China took the initiative in taking a hard-line approach towards this cryptocurrency based method of fundraising. A broad range of regulators eventually took approach of leveraging a widespread ban on Chinese companies, preventing them from raising money through the use of this method.

Bitcoin Officially Splits Into Two Currencies – Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash Through Hard Fork, August 1st, 2017: $3,384

With its early emergence over the course of 2017, there were some major and turbulent challenges over the middle of the summer that year when it came to the matter of scalability within Bitcoin. These teams of developers finally decided upon an official split, thus creating Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, with each of these cryptocurrencies taking a differing approach towards the matter of scalability.

Japan Officially Recognizes Bitcoin as a Legal Currency, April 1st, 2017: $1,215.69

After months of deliberation by Japanese authorities, the country officially recognized Bitcoin as a legal method of payment according to the country's legislature. It is within this newly developed regulatory scheme, the Bitcoin exchanges within the country would need to operate in conjunction to newly introduced regulatory practices, such as anti money laundering policies and Know Your Customer rules.

SEC Denies the Wiklevoss Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund – March 10th, 2017: $1,038

It was made official by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) application set forward by the Winklevoss twins was rejected, citing that the immaturity and lack of stability of the cryptocurrency market meant that an ETF was not possible.

Bitcoin manages to break through the $1,000 For the First Time in Nearly Three Years, January 3rd, 2017: $807

After a period of rallying over the course of 2016, Bitcoin had managed to break the $1,000 price point for the first time in the matter of years.

Stock Markets Plummet as a Result of Donald Trump's Shock Election Victory – Bitcoin Prices Rise, November 9th 2016: $749

In a dramatic and startling victory for the Republican Party, the now president Donald Trump officially defeated Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton. The announcement caused massive shocks across global stock markets. US Markets, for example fell by approximately 1 percent, Japan's own Nikkei fell by 5.4 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid by 2.1 percent.

Meanwhile, Gold increased by approximately 3 percent while Bitcoin enjoyed a significant rise in contrast to major global markets, increasing by 5 percent. Traders and institutional investors also began to see the intrinstic value of using Bitcoin as a hedge against broader market movements.

Bitfinex Loses 72 Million Dollars in Cyber Attack, August 2nd, 2016 – $591

The Cryptocurrency exchange, Bitfinex made the announcement that it had officially lost more than 120,000 of its customers Bitcoins due to a catastrophic security breach of the system. This equaled a total of 72 million dollars worth of Bitcoin lost at the time, Overall, the value of Bitcoin managed to decrease by over 20 percent, causing the price to recede to $480 after the announcement by Bitfinex.

The hack had a broader scope of repercussions within the Bitcoin community as a whole, and Bitfinex had contributed to a broader decline of prices over the last month. This was all before the Bitfinex announcement was made. This indicated that there were parties within Bitfinex that had prior knowledge that this hack was going to take place.

Bitcoin Halves for the Second Time – July 9th, 2016: $674

This date commemorates the second time in the history of Bitcoin that the Bitcoin block reward was halved from 25 Bitcoin per block to 12.5

Craig Wright Declares That he is Satoshi Nakamoto, May 2nd, 2016: $454

Within a blog post on his website, the Australian Craig Wright announced that he . is the true developer behind Bitcoin – Satoshi Nakamoto. As a kind of evidence fro this, he provided a private key signature demonstrating that he had control over the walled off Bitcoin that had been stored back in 2009 /2010.

This same evidence was subsequently debunked by the community within the same day. This same claim by Wright is continually debated and attacked to this day.

Steam Accepts Bitcoin Payments, April 27th, 2016: $461

The gaming platform developed by Valve, Steam announced that it would go on to accept Bitcoin as a medium of payment for a range of video games and digital content on the platform. In order to achieve this, Valve announced that it will be putting to use the Crypto Payments solution – Bitpay in order to provide this service for users.

OpenBazaar Launches and becomes one of the first Decentralized Marketplaces, April 4th, 2016: $426

OpenBazaar launches and becomes the very first digital and decentralized marketplace. It's objective is to create an open peer to peer market which removes the need for any kind of middlemen, fees or restrictions on digital trade. The company would go on to announce that they had successfully received over 1 million dollars worth of seed funding from major nationally active venture capital firms such as Union Square Ventures as well as Andreessen Horowitz

Segregated Witness Was Proposed by a Range of Bitcoin Core Developers and Miners, February 21st, 2016:

Members of the Bitcoin community descended upon Hong Kong in order to discuss Bitcoin and its future goals. One of the proposals designed to redress the challenges related to scaling was known as Segregated Witness otherwise known as SegWit, which was proposed during the body of the meeting in order to deal with ongoing congestion as it related to transactions. The group had finally agreed to scale Bitcoin in order to make it into an international solution for payments.

Wired Reports That Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, December 8th, 2015: $461

Wired officially published an article at this time claiming that Dr Craig Wright was officially the developer of Bitcoin – Stoshi Nakamoto – arguing that either the Australian businessman was either Nakamoto or a ‘brilliant hoaxer'.

Gwern Branwen had cited a series of emails, deleted blog posts along with a wide range of leaked court documents within the article in order to provide evidence that Wright is Nakamoto.

In order to further attempt to substantiate his own claim to being Nakamoto, Wright would go on to provide proof to a small pool of researchers that he was, in fact, Nakamoto. Even if this was the case, the proof is still very much disrupted by the community behind Bitcoin.

Bitcoin's Symbol Officially Accepted Into the Unicode, November 3rd, 2015: $334

Bitcoin has been steadily growing in influence, as it evidenced by the Unicode Technical Committees decision to accept the Bitcoin symbol into the Unicode Standard – providing it with the slot – U+20BF SIGN.

Bitcoin Makes the Front Page of The Economist For the First Time, October 31st, 2015: $366.67

Under the headline “The Trust Machine,” Bitcoin officially appeared on the front page of the internationally renowned financial news magazine. The article itself discussed the principles behind what we know as economic liberalism, as well as the kind of utility provided by blockchain technology, including the prospect of national and international banks making use of blockchain in order to create and launch its own take on a cryptocurrency for internal or international use.

The European Union Officially Declares that No VAT Will be Imposed on Bitcoin Trades, October 22nd, 2015: $318.43

According to a ruling made by the European Court of Justice, it ruled that Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies will not be subjected to any kind of Value Added Tax (VAT) within the European Union. This ruling officially means that Bitcoin would be given a similar kind of treatment that currencies enjoy as opposed to a commodity or property – This is a position which is in stark contrast to the position taken by the regulatory agencies of the United States.

The Gemini Exchange is Officially Launched by the Winklevoss Twins in New York: October 5th, 2015: $268

While previously known as the twins assiduously involved in the development of the social media platform Facebook. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced the launch of their own Bitcoin exchange which is based in the United States and well regulated.

With its launch, Gemini was provided with licenses in order to effectively operate within 26 of the States and, thanks to its existing partnership with a bank in New York, customers that deposit assets through the company will have their assets secured through an FDIC insurance – much like customers of a normal bank.

Commodity and Futures Trading Commission Declares that Bitcoin is a Commodity, September 18th, 2015: $238.15

In contrast to later rulings by the European Union, the United States' Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it had settled charges against a specific Bitcoin exchange which allowed users to trade various options contracts.

It was as a consequence of this ruling that the CFTC would go on to deem that “bitcoin and other virtual currencies are properly defined as commodities.”

New York Introduces its new BitLicense for Crypto Exchanges Trading Within the State's Jurisdiction, June 3rd, 2015: $232.05

New York officially became one of the single most progressive states within the United States when it comes to cryptocurrency regulation with the introduction of its own regulatory scheme known as the ‘BitLicense'. Through this license, any cryptocurrency exchange platform will be able to do business by acquiring one of these licenses from the New York Department of Financial Services.

In order to accomplish this, exchanges would need to pay an application fee of $5,000, along with biometric information for the FBI, as well as provide written approval for any and all new business activities. A large number of older exchanges have since ceased operations within the state as a result of their hesitance towards this license.

Coinbase Officially Launches Itself as a US Bitcoin Based Trading Platform, January 26th, 2015: $222.85

Backed by a series of Venture capital companies, Coinbase announced its launch of its own dedicated Bitcoin trading solution after spending months attempting to receive regulation from states and federal financial agencies. During this launch, Coinbase was able to successfully and legally accept trades on Bitcoin from customers across 25 states across America.

Bitstamp Subjected to Hack, Lost 5.2 Million Dollars in the Process, January 4th, 2015: $198.59

This period of time represents one of the worst bear markets that Bitcoin has sustained in its history so far. And it was about to get worse when Bitstamp was subject to a malicious hack, resulting in the theft of approximately 18,866 Bitcoin, which was worth a total of 5.2 million dollars through the use of a range of social engineering strategies against the exchanges administrator.

For eight days, the Bitstamp platform was shut down before it was able to re-open again. While this represented a significant loss for the company, Bitstamp's more extensive cold storage was left completely untouched, while customer balances were also left unscathed, with this amount of Bitcoin representing only a ‘small fraction' according to the team.

Microsoft Officially Accepts Bitcoin, December 11th, 2014: $324.87

The international digital service provider, Microsoft becomes one of the first major companies to accept Bitcoin from customers within the United States, allowing users to spend them in order to buy apps, games and digital content through Windows and XBOX. In order to allow for these transactions to be completed, Windows employed the use of Bitpay as a Bitcoin Payments provider.

Bitcoin Transaction Known as BearWhale is Officially Filled by Bitcoin Exchange, October 6th, 2014: $387.40

Bitcoin markets officially rocketed upwards thanks to the sale of one of the largest selling orders in the . history of Bitcoin when an unknown trader put approximately 30,000 Bitcoin up for sale on the coin exchange BitStamp at a price of 300 dollars.

This position was known as ‘BearWhale' thanks to its total position value of 9 million dollars within the community. While the position was finally filled and sold, the price of Bitcoin deflated as a result.

Dell Officially Starts Accepting Bitcoin, July 18th, 2014: $528.88

The computer and technology giant, Dell announced its decision to accept Bitcoin as a medium of payment for customers from within the United States. Boasting a total annual revenue of 56 billion dollars at the time, Dell is the single largest company at the time accepting cryptocurrency as a payments solution.

The decision by Dell was made after a number of computer hardware providers such as TigerDirect, Overstock, Newegg and others launched Bitcoin payments through their platforms.

United States Government Sells off 30,000 Bitcoin Within An Auction, June 27th, 2014: $628.5

During October 2013, the United States Marshall's had seized approximately 30,000 Bitcoin during a raid of the dark net trafficking platform – Silk Road. The Bitcoin was auctioned off in June 2014 to the highest bigger. That of course turned out to be the billionaire and venture capitalist – Tim Draper – who purchased the tens of thousands of BTC, making him one of the biggest holders of Bitcoin to date.

GHash.io Gains Temporary Majority Control, or 51 Percent Control Over the Bitcoin Network, June 13th, 2014: $592.28

The cryptocurrency mining pool known as GHash.io managed to obtain 51 percent and majority control over the hashing power of the Bitcoin network, allowing them to theoretically launch a 51 percent attack against the network as a whole. In doing so, it would have the power to reverse bitcoin transactions.

In order to dissuade any financial confidence from the community, the mining pool announced that it would never, under any circumstances participate in a 51 percent attack, and would seek to limit its pools hash power to under 40 percent in the foreseeable future.

The People's Bank of China Conducts Widespread Shut Down of Bank Accounts Related to Exchanges, April 10th, 2014: $501.7

The deadline for Chinese financial institutions to demand the cease of dealings between cryptocurrency and Bitcoin exchanges was April 15th. On this date, a number of exchanges within China had their bank accounts closed down during this time, with many exchanges resorting to the use of off-shore banking to continue operation.

The IRS Announced that Bitcoin Will be Subject to Taxation Just Like Property: March 26th, 2014: $453.05

The centralized tax institution of the United States – the Internal Revenue Service, announced that it will be placing taxations on Bitcoin to the same style as property. Bitcoin, among other cryptocurrencies would not be treated in the same tax sense as currencies but more akin to property. This means that they would be subject to legal restrictions and logistical challenges such as Capital Gains forecasting and tax.

Newsweek Identifies the Retired Computer Engineer – Dorian Nakamoto as Being Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's Creator, March 6th, 2014: $631.25

Newsweek, which is a media outlet, saw one of its journalists – Leah McGrath Goodman – identified the computer engineer, Dorian Nakamoto as being the officially the creator of Bitcoin. While Dorian Nakamoto would go on to refute any claims that he was the creator of Bitcoin, further investigation would go on to prove that Dorian had no connection to the project whatsoever. The Bitcoin community would go on to raise approximately $23,000 for Dorian Nakamoto in light of the harassment he had received during the crpyto Cause Celebre.

Cryptocurrency Exchange – Mt. Gox Suddenly Shut Down, February 24th, 2014: $662

As of February 7th, the cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox had halted all withdrawals after it was subjected to a DDoS atack. Over few weeks, Mt Gox would go on to permanently close its doors to traders. It was shown later on that Mt Gox resolved to shut down after it had found that nearly three-quarters of a million Bitcoin (744,000) were missing from its cold storage.

As a result of these reports, what was previously known as the worlds largest Bitcoin exchange platform officially went bankrupt, with the price of Bitcoin plummeting as a result, with some investors suffering catastrophic losses.

Mt Gox was subject to a Serious DDoS attack Along With Other Major Exchanges, February 7th, 2014: $626

Mt Gox, Bitstamp, BTC-E along with a wide range of other cryptocurrency exchanges were subjected to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, resulting in many of these exchanges being subject to temporary shut downs. Drastically harming the price of Bitcoin as a result.

The Chinese Government Issues Ban on Financial Institutions Using Bitcoin, December 5th, 2013: $839

With a tremendous amount of popularity being won in China for Bitcoin. The People's Bank of China took the unilateral decision to ban Bitcoin as a medium of currency, prohibiting any financial institutions from using it.

The Price of Bitcoin Surges to High Value of $1,242 on Mt Gox Exchange – November 29th, 2013: $921

With an increasing level of investment from China, the price of Bitcoin surges higher, allowing Bitcoin to reach an all time high value point on November 29th. Citizens within China decided to make use of the cryptocurrency as a safe source of storage of value from the Yuan which was undergoing dangerous inflation.

China Allows its Citizenry to Legally Trade and Own Bitcoin / Cryptocurrencies, November 20th, 2013: $1,075

In a statement provided by the People's Bank of China, citizens will officially be “free to participate in the bitcoin market”, paving the way for members of the Chinese public to buy, sell and own Bitcoin on a large scale. This would cause the price and trading volume of Bitcoin to skyrocket.

United States Senate Holds off on Hearing Regarding Bitcoin, November 18th, 2013: $1,072

In the aftermath of the arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the Senate of the United States hosted a talk known as ‘Beyond Silk Road', which discussed the “potential risks, threats and promises” of digital currencies. While there were a number of panelists and senators that regarded Bitcoin as a risky asset, there were others that saw it as having innovative potential.

The Dread Pirate Roberts – Arrested, October 1st, 2013: $135.12

The Federal Bureau of Investigation followed up on a series of clues in order to successfully arrest the ‘Dread Pirate Roberts' otherwise known as Ross Ulbricht, who worked as the mysterious owner of the Darknet Trading marketplace known as Silk Road.

This dark web site gained a notoriety as a place for users to buy and sell anything from guns, drugs, and other illegal goods and services in exchange for BTC. The Dread Pirate was charged with multiple charges of Narcotics trafficking, hacking, money laundering, as well as engaging and participating in a criminal cartel. With over 170,000 BTC were seized during this operation

TradeHill officially Ceases its Operations, August 30th, 2013: $126.94

Known as a business to business exchange platform, Tradehill officially ceased operations and returned its pool of funds after the Archive Federal Credit Union, the company's financial partner, decided that it didn't want to endure the regulatory issues for Bitcoin.

Department of Homeland Security Issues a Warrant Against the Crypto Exchange Mt.Gox, May 14th, 2013: $126.94

The Department of Homeland Security managed to seize over 3 million dollars from a Wells Fargo Bank account which belonged to Mark Karpeles, who worked as the CEO of Mt Gox. The investigation found that the CEO was found guilty of illegally transmitting money against the banks terms of service. Users, as a result, grew concerned about the future legal status of Bitcoin

The Increased Trading Volume Manages to Break Mt Gox Exchange, April 10th, 2013: $122.9

The trading volume of Mt Gox rocketed up in what was previously believed that it was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. What it turned out to be was a surge of users seeking to trade within the exchange – including a large number of users fleeing the faltering situation within Cyprus. Mt Gox had to issue a brief shutdown in light of this pressure, causing a great deal of panic within the community.

Cyprus' Bailout and Economic Situation Causes Major Surge in price of Bitcoin, March 25th, 2013: $131.07

The European Union had provided the government of Cyprus with a 10 million Euro bailout package in order to reress the country and its faltering economy. This bailout package came with the further condition that any account with more than 100,000 Euro would be subject to fees and transaction restrictions.

It was in light of these new restrictive measures caused the price of Bitcoin to spike from 80 dollars to more than 260 dollars as a wide number of wealth Cyprian citizens and foreign nationals fled the money system.

Bitcoin 0.8 undergoes a Hard Fork Debacle, March 11th, 2013: $68.89

It was a rough and challenging week for the Bitcoin community after a range of transaction issues, causing a brief hard fork. Mt Gox had temporarily issued a suspension of operations, while the core development team conducted a “swift and co-ordinated response” in order to solve this issue within a matter of hours.

It was the updated iteration of Bitcoin, known as Version 0.8.2, was released quickly after in order to ensure that this issue would never emerge again.

Bitcoin Undergoes First Ever Block Halving, November 28th, 2012: $13.43

The number of Bitcoin awarded to miners with each Bitcoin block undergoes its first ever halving. Decreasing the reward for miners from 50 Bitcoin per block down to 25 Bitcoin per block.

WordPress Starts to Accept Bitcoin, November 15th, 2012: $12.46

According to a press release provided by the Content Management solution – WordPress made the announcement that it would begin . to accept Bitcoin as a means of financial transactions, citing the likes of PayPal and Visa for their uncalled for restrictions on it as a virtual currency. The company would go on to criticize the two financial giants for blocking transactions in more than 60 countries including emerging markets. “Our goal is to enable people, not block them,” wrote WordPress in the statement.

Bitcoin Savings and Trust Officially Halted Payments, August 17th, 2012: $11.18

Trendon T. Shavers is charged under allegations of defrauding investors on the digital platform Bitcoin Savings and Trust by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Shavers accepted a range of virtual deposits from forum users of BitcoinTalk of up to 50 Bitcoin, they were then supposed to be paid out interest on a weekly basis.

It was on this day that Shavers put a halt to the operation, vanishing into the ether with anywhere from 86 thousand to half a million Bitcoin.

Linode Was Hacked, Losing Over 46,000 Bitcoin, March 1st, 2012: $4.89

A hacker managed to breach the servers of the web host known as Linode, successfully managing to access a wide range of wallets which contained a large number of bitcoin. In total, the hacker managed to steal approximately $228,000 worth of digital assets from Linode's range of customers. Some of the victims of this attack include the lead developer of Bitcoin – Gavin Andresen, Bitcoinica as well as the Mining Pool operator – Marek ‘Slush' Palatinus.

Paxum and Tradehill Drop Bitcoin After Discovery of BTC-E Bug, February 11th, 2012: $4.31

Over the week of Feb 11th, the online payments processing service known as Paxum announced that it would be ceasing all cryptocurrency transactions and processing regarding legal issues. After two days, the money transmitter service, TradeHill, announced that it would also be closing its operations and would sell off its bitcoin in order to refund both its population of creditors and customers.

BitcoinTalk forum user. Patrick ‘Phantomcircuit' Stratement took to the forums to disclose the fact that there was a BTC-E bug discovered on the cryptocurrency exchange.

“Bitcoin For Dummies” Episode Airs As Part of ‘The Good Wife” in December 19th, 2011: $4.22

Approximately 9.45 million viewers took to television to watch the bitcoin themed episode of The Good Wife with many investors believing that the episode would have a spectacularly positive effect on the value of Bitcoin during trading. Unfortunately for many, there were very few in the way of viewers bought into the excitement of Bitcoin, and activity remained muted.

Mt Gox Hacked, June 19th, 2011: $17.77

An Auditor working on behalf of the cryptocurrency exchange managed to hack the exchange by downloading a full copy of the user database which contained an range of insecure hashed passcodes. Through the use of Amin-level privileges, the Auditor managed to place a number of sell order onto the platform before going on to halt trading for one week while they sought to reverse these trades. In total, over 4,019 Bitcoin were stolen.

Gawker Officially Publishes New Article About Silk Road, June 1st, 2011: $16.88

Adrian Chen, one of the staff writers for the news platform – Gawker, published an expose article on the dark web website known as Silk Road. The article itself was titled “The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable.” This article went into detail about how users could purchase any illegal black market substance or item on the market through the use of Bitcoin.

The article itself exploded in popularity, causing the price of Bitcoin to almost double. Within one week of the article being published, Bitcoin surged up to 31 dollars.

The controversial article described how you could purchase drugs, assassins, and virtually anything on Silk Road in exchange for bitcoin. The heavily-trafficked article caused the price of bitcoin to surge from $9.21 to $17.61. Within a week of publication, bitcoin peaked at a price of $31.

Three Bitcoin Exchanges Officially Launch, Accepting New Fiat Currencies, March 27th, 2011: $.072

Bitcoin was officially launched as a Crypto exchange in March 2011, the platform allowed a wide range of users to trade Bitcoin directly with the Pound Sterling for the first time in its history. Shortly thereafter, a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange would become the second to do so successfully. Over early April, BitMarket.eu was also launched, giving customers within the European Union to trade Bitcoin in exchange for Euro. These three exchanges would open up the way for millions of new bitcoin users across the world.

Bitcoin Successfully Manages to Reach Parity with the US Dollar, February 9th, 2011: $1

Being only two years old by this point, Bitcoin had officially managed to reach parity with the US Dollar according to the Mt Gox cryptocurrency exchange. With the news that it had successfully matched the US Dollar, this caused the price to accelerate, as new investors jumped on board.

Bitcoin Protocol Bug Results in Hard Fork, August 15th, 2010: $0.07

In light of the computer number process error, a user had managed to create a fraudulent Bitcoin transaction process which allowed them to generate trillions of bitcoin. A further 99 thousand more than what is allowed to exist within the system.

Mt Gox Opens, July 18th, 2010: $0.06

Headed up and launched on July 18th by the senior programmer, Jed McCaleb, Mt Gox officially opened its virtual doors. Previously referred to and known as the developer behind the Peer to peer network solution known as eDonkey back in 2000.

The infrastructure of this cryptocurrency exchange was based on McCalebs previous code structure was based on his previously failed project known as Magic: The Gathering Online Card Exchange Platform (MTGOX). Over the next three years, this exchange would become known as one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in operation in the world. McCaleb would go on to sell this exchange on to Mark Karpeles on March 6th, 2011.

Bitcoin Officially Features in Slashdot Article, July 11th, 2010: $0.08

With the release of version 0.3 of Bitcoin, it was successfully featured in the popular news and technology platform known as Slashdot.org. Its readers because greatly interested in Bitcoin, allowing the price of the crypto to increase tenfold in just under a week.

Laszlo Pays for Two Pizzas, Making Them the First Items Bought Using Bitcoin, May 22nd, 2010: $0.0025

Laszlo, known more commonly as one of the active users of the BitcoinTalk Forum, manages to use 10,000 BTC in order to purchase two pizzas from local Papa Johns for approximately 25 dollars. These pizzas were ordered and paid for thanks to a fellow forum user known as Jercos.

Very First Bitcoin to Fiat Exchange Takes Place, October 12th, 2009: $0.001

Through the use of Paypal, the New Liberty Standard successfully purchased a total of 5,050 Bitcoin from the crypto user known as Sirius for the cash sum of 5 dollars, which roughly equals an exchange rate of $0.001 per Bitcoin. This is the very first known trade and exchange of Bitcoin for Fiat currency.

The New Liberty Standard Publishes the Very First Live Bitcoin Exchange Rate, October 5th, 2009: $0.0008

New Liberty Standard announces the launch of its own Bitcoin Exchange rate service with a preliminary exchange rate of 1,309 Bitcoin to US Dollar. This roughly equated to $0.0008 per one Bitcoin. New Liberty Standard found that this exchange rate was based on the underlying cost of electricity used in order to mine a single bitcoin.

The Very First Transaction of Bitcoin Takes Place From Between Satoshi Nakamoto to Hal Finney, January 12th, 2009: $0

This would come to be known as the very first Bitcoin transaction in History to take place on Janaury 12th. This transaction was between Satoshi Nakamoto, who would transfer 10 Bitcoin to the fellow Bitcoin Developer and Cryptography advocate and activist Hal Finney.

Finney would then go on to tweet about the interaction shortly after, and would go on to jokingly comment that he never paid Satoshi back.

Genesis Block is Officially Established, January 3rd, 2009: $0

This date marks the creation of the worlds first Bitcoin block, known as the Genesis block. This would go on to be mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, thus officially launching the Bitcoin blockchain and cryptocurrency.

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How Bitcoin Prices Work: MyBitcoin User, Investor & Trader Knowledge Base

Chapter 1.4 Bitcoin Prices

“Bitcoin isn’t backed by anything. It has no value.”

When you ask people about the value of bitcoin, they may say things like that.

There’s some truth to that statement – but it’s also really ignorant to say bitcoin is “backed by nothing”.

Bitcoin has no inherent value because it’s not tied to a certain physical object like gold. You can’t exchange your bitcoin for gold, for example, and there’s no connection between bitcoin and any physical asset.

However, bitcoin has plenty of real value from its underlying technology. The entire value of bitcoin is based on its technology. That technology allows bitcoin to be used as a revolutionary store of value and an efficient currency. The value of bitcoin is based on its usability. Usability is linked to supply and demand.

As bitcoin’s usability rises, the demand for bitcoin increases. The supply of bitcoin, however, never changes and will never change. There’s a total supply of 21 million bitcoins. No more than 21 million bitcoins can ever be created.

As of May 2018, approximately 17 million bitcoins have been mined, leaving 4 million available to be mined. Of the 17 million bitcoins in circulation, it’s believed that approximately 2 to 4 million bitcoins have been lost – the owners have lost their private keys, for example, which means the bitcoins are still available on the bitcoin blockchain, but they cannot be accessed.

All of this information leads to a simple conclusion:

As the usability of bitcoin increases, demand for bitcoin grows. Supply, however, has remained the same over time. Increasing demand and a stable supply leads to higher prices.

That’s how the price of bitcoin is determined. It also explains why the price of bitcoin has steadily risen year-after-year.

In comparison, look at currencies like the USD. Governments don’t want a fiat currency that fluctuates in value between $1 and $100. That would be disastrous for the economy. That’s why governments print money. They increase the supply of money in response to demand. The goal is to keep the value of the currency stable within a certain range. Over time, this typically leads to inflation: the total supply of USDs is constantly rising, which means the value of the $10 USD you hold today will not have the same value 10 years from now – despite the fact that your $10 USD is always going to be worth $10 USD.

There Are Two Factors Behind the Price of Bitcoin

This all boils down to the fact that there are two factors behind the price of bitcoin, including:

Utility and Usability: As bitcoin becomes more usable, the demand for bitcoin increases. In the early days, bitcoin was a nifty online currency, but it wasn’t very usable. There weren’t good wallet apps, for example, and no major merchants accepted bitcoin. Today, things have changed, and bitcoin is more usable than ever before.

Scarcity: The other MAJOR factor behind the price of bitcoin is its scarcity. As the price of bitcoin rises, the supply of bitcoin never changes. There’s always a total supply of 21 million bitcoins. A few bitcoins are constantly released through the mining process as we approach the 21 million bitcoin limit. However, the increasing supply of these bitcoins does not keep up with demand, which is why we’ve seen the price constantly rise over time.

Other Factors Affecting the Price of Bitcoin

The two major factors affecting the price of bitcoin are supply and demand. Supply is influenced by the scarcity of bitcoin and its 21 million unit limit. Demand is influenced by the usability and utility of bitcoin.

However, there are other factors that affect the price of bitcoin, including things like all of the following that can affect demand:

Market Sentiment: Market sentiment is another way of saying ‘demand’. Market sentiment refers to how major exchanges, communities, investors, institutions, and markets see bitcoin. How does the community feel about bitcoin? Has recent bitcoin news been priced into the market? Are markets bullish (believing the price will rise) or bearish (believing the price will fall)?

Regulatory Changes: Crypto prices plummeted in September 2017 when China announced the closure and ban of bitcoin exchanges. Some people called it the end of bitcoin. The price of bitcoin, however, quickly recovered and rose to an all time high a few months later. Regulatory changes around the world can have a major effect on bitcoin. If the United States, South Korea, or other major bitcoin-using nations ever announce a widespread ban to bitcoin, for example, the markets will be flooded with people looking to sell their bitcoins. History tells us the price of bitcoin always rebounds after regulatory changes, but you never know what the future holds.

Exchange-related Issues: Other major bitcoin price movements have occurred due to exchange-related issues. The infamous Mt. Gox hack, for example, caused the price of bitcoin to plummet from $1400 to $200. The world’s biggest bitcoin exchange was hacked and hundreds of millions of dollars of bitcoin were lost. Some people saw it as the end of bitcoin – it was simply too insecure to be a real currency. These hacks and other exchange-related issues can substantially influence the price.

Is Bitcoin a Bubble?

You’ll find plenty of people calling bitcoin a bubble. Any time demand for any asset rises suddenly over time, you’ll find people calling it a bubble. There are real estate bubbles, for example. There are also historically famous bubbles like “Tulip mania” in the 1700s and the Dot Com bubble of the 1990s.

Is bitcoin a bubble? Is it doomed to collapse like bubbles of the past?

It could be. Like with all aspects of bitcoin, it’s impossible to predict the future.

However, it’s important to remember that bitcoin isn’t like any traditional asset in the world today. It could buck the trend. Bitcoin’s bubble might never burst. Or, bitcoin might not even be in a bubble.

A bubble is only a problem when a large group of people suddenly decide to sell that particular asset. This is when the bubble bursts. Sometimes, the bubble never bursts. Sometimes, the market cools and a small group of people decide to sell. The bubble deflates slightly but never bursts.

Would a large group of people ever suddenly sell bitcoin? Would the market ever be flooded with people who are trying to sell their bitcoin but can’t find a buyer? It’s certainly conceivable. We’ve seen similar events occur in the past when certain countries ban bitcoin or when certain exchanges get hacked.

Remember: a fast rise in price doesn’t necessarily constitute a bubble. Instead, artificial over-valuation of an asset causes a bubble.

Bitcoin’s rise could be legitimately fueled by people who understand and believe in the future of the currency. Or, bitcoin’s rise could be fueled by people who bought bitcoin because they expected to get rich quick.

To date, bitcoin has recovered from every major hurdle it has faced. Numerous people have announced the death of bitcoin and the bursting of the bubble – but so far, the price has steadily grown over time.

Maybe the drop from $20,000 to $10,000 between December 2017 and January 2018 was the “bubble bursting”. Maybe the price will drop to $100 within a few months when the United States announces harsh bitcoin regulations. We just don’t know – and that’s what makes bitcoin exciting.

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How Bitcoin Transactions Work: Signed, Verified & Confirmed?

Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin transactions work in a way that should amaze most. At first glance, a transaction may appear to be a simple money transfer between wallets, but that isn't the case by any means. Your Bitcoins aren't held anywhere, and your Bitcoin wallet is just a list of credentials consisting of a public and private key.

As absurd as that sounds, the technology behind Bitcoin – known as blockchain – enables seamless transactions, and everything happens automatically without any person or institution having a say in your financial matters whatsoever.

Bitcoins Aren't Stored Anywhere

How Bitcoin works require a fundamental understanding of blockchain, the technology behind this and many other cryptocurrencies. Just imagine the blockchain as a ledger for each and every transaction that was ever performed within the Bitcoin network, with new transactions being added continuously to the chain upon verification. This record of past transactions allows Bitcoin “miners” – people who verify transactions through the use of dedicated computing equipment – to determine the current balance of a public key used to initiate a transaction, and that in itself negates the requirement to hold Bitcoins digitally anywhere.

The blockchain is continuously updated at specific mining nodes around the world, thereby eliminating any concerns about the safety of the data stored within. Hashes are used to encrypt each block present throughout the blockchain, which further safeguards it from any kind of modifications.

What a Transaction Looks Like

A Bitcoin transaction is very simple to perform and requires the public key to a wallet with authorization performed via a private key. Once you insert the number of Bitcoins that you want to transfer and the Bitcoin address of the payee, your request is sent to a pool of transactions for verification. Bitcoin miners then begin processing your transaction, with your address being double-checked via the blockchain to ensure that sufficient funds are present to complete the transaction.

A block of transactions is supposed to take just ten minutes to verify, though the massive amount of orders flowing through the Bitcoin network mean that transfers may take significantly longer to process. Most vendors require you to wait for verification before you can gain access to your purchases, but certain merchants don't make you sit it out for low-value transactions.

Transaction Fees

Bitcoin miners are automatically compensated for every solved block of transactions in the form of newly created Bitcoins, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you don't pay any transaction fees when sending money. The extreme popularity of the cryptocurrency has led many Bitcoin miners to place a high priority on transactions that include fees – most wallets have settings on how much transaction fees to include within a transfer, and if you want to send some money in a hurry, be prepared to pay a hefty fee to be able to do that.

Safety of Transactions

Due to the strength of the technology and cryptography behind Bitcoin, transactions are very safe to perform. Authorization requires a private key, so unless someone else has knowledge of it, there's practically no reason to worry about unauthorized transactions. The Bitcoin network also allows for anonymity – while your public key is visible on the blockchain to almost everyone, there simply is no way to identify anyone with just a string of random letters and numbers.

However, you must keep in mind that transactions are permanent and cannot be reversed unless refunded by the payee – if you are about to complete a high-value transaction, you may want to confirm the legitimacy of the receiver beforehand.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

Always keep in mind that unlike a normal money transfer, Bitcoin transactions are very different. You have complete anonymity and faster transfers overall, and the encryption protocols behind the cryptocurrency allow for extremely secure transactions.

However, the unregulated nature of the market can cause significant issues when it comes to high-value transactions, especially since you are solely responsible for the safety of your Bitcoins. Combine that with the rapidly fluctuating values of cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin payments aren't feasible for every situation by any means.