Top 10 Bitcoin Facts Every Cryptocurrency User Should Know in 2018

Top Bitcoin Facts You Should Know

The undisputed cryptocurrency leader and the coin on which all other cryptos depend for their existence, bitcoin is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.

In fact, it is often synonymous with cryptocurrencies as a whole. It is not unusual to hear people refer to cryptos as bitcoin, when in reality, they are different.

Bitcoin became the talk of the town last year, when it shot up from less than a $1,000 per token to as high as $18,000+.

For many, the sheer growth triggered a huge inflow of cash into cryptocurrencies resulting in the biggest cryptocurrency growth since its inception.

In this article, we’ll be examining the most common and befuddling facts surrounding the cryptocurrency.

1. Bitcoin’s Founder Is An Enigma

Most people have heard of the mystery person called Satoshi Nakamoto. But no one really knows who he/she/they is/are. This entity designed was singlehandedly responsible for building, designing and launching the bitcoin project in 2009.

Satoshi Nakamoto is actually a pseudonym. One that many people have busied themselves with, trying to figure out who he/she/they is/are (as you can see, even we aren’t sure of their sex, identity or organization).

There are rumors that the name Satoshi Nakamoto is actually a combination of the names of multiple organizations. These organizations include Samsung (Sa), Toshiba (toshi), Nakamich (Naka) and Motorola (Moto). Combined together, you can see how they spell the founder’s name.

Then, there are those who posit that the person is a male enigma. Whatever the case, the founder’s real identity isn’t known –forget about usurpers like Craig Wright as he’s a known scammer and “shillster” or the bespectacled older Asian man– and remains hidden until they/he/she choose to reveal themselves.

Whatever the case, just know that the founder is currently worth over $16 billion in bitcoin and has/have been nominated for a Nobel prize in economic sciences. Not bad for an enigma, eh?

2. Transactions Are Traceable And Untraceable

Depending on who you ask and how much information you know. Bitcoin has a public permanent blockchain ledger that details how much a bitcoin wallet or public address is holding.

But, that’s all the information there is about that. You cannot find an associated name, address or phone number of the individual. Now you understand why we said it can be both traceable and untraceable at the same time.

Before anyone can determine your public address, they’ll need to know that it’s your first. That’s the only way they can determine that you own the wallet. This is how the FBI caught the founder of Silk Road, the world’s erstwhile biggest online drugs market.

3. Bitcoin Mining Is Getting Harder

Some people prefer mining bitcoin as a means of generating passive income. In the heydays, that used to be a moneymaker. Nowadays, not so much.

Because there’s a limit to the amount of bitcoins that can be in circulation -21 million- it’s getting harder to mine bitcoins. As a result, you have many people jumping ship and mining other less limiting cryptocurrencies.

Eventually, chances are people would mine that amount of bitcoins, resulting in max supply. When that happens, bitcoin mining as an income generating strategy will be retired.

4. 10,000 BTC For Two Pizzas

One of the most popular facts about bitcoin is, about a year after it was created, someone paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas on May 22, 2010 –this is why Bitcoin Pizza day is marked on the same date every year.

At the time, the 10,000 BTC was valued at $41. Today that 10,000 would be valued at over $70 million, while its value would have been over $180 million in December 2017.

5. Guess Who Has The World’s Largest Known Bitcoin Stash

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is what it is. Yes, the same FBI that you know. They were able to amass such huge amount when they arrested the founder of Silk Road, shut down the black market site and seized his bitcoin wallet, valued at over $100 million at the time. We’re pretty sure it’s grown in value since then, given bitcoin’s incredible growth rate.

6. Bitcoin’s Network Is Incredibly Powerful

You know how the world’s best supercomputers are thought of as something of a legend? Well, turns out bitcoin’s network is 500 times more powerful. This is because the network has a computing power of 2,046,364 Pflops/s. This is more power than 500 of the world’s fastest and most powerful supercomputers.

7. Transactions Are Irreversible

Here’s why you need to be careful about the address you’re sending money to. If you send some funds to the wrong address, you better pray real hard that the receiver is kind enough to send your money back.

And if you send it to a nonexistent address, your funds are gone all the same. In conventional payment networks, you just have to request a refund if you send money to a wrong account.

With bitcoin, that money is gone. And it’s worse because there’s no way to reach the receiver because, that information is not public at all. So, be careful with sending funds.

8. Bitcoin Investment Can Be Financially Rewarding

Early adopters of bitcoin made a fortune from the cryptocurrency. Even those who invested early 2016, made at least 6 times their money. The returns from bitcoin is singlehanded responsible for the term “cryptomillionaire”, as it has made quite a few guys millionaires.

If you bought just 100 BTC in 2013 for about $400, that 100 BTC would be valued at $750,000 today. And if you had sold in December, that’d have been an easy $1.8 million.

While the cost of getting into bitcoin is pretty high now, it still has the potential to grow over the next few years. There are speculations that it could it the $100k mark within a few years.

So, if you’ve got the cash, bitcoin is still the most financially rewarding and stable cryptocurrency to invest in.

9. Lost Wallets Are Irretrievable

Retrieving lost wallets is almost impossible. The same goes for losing your private keys or password. There’s no way to request a password reset or get your private keys back.

This is why you need to keep your private keys, passwords and wallets safe. Many people who bought bitcoins in the early days and promptly forgot about it, or were unable to retrieve their details have regretted that decision.

Don’t be one of those people. Keep those wallets really close.

10. Costs Nothing To Send Funds

You know how you would have to pay some fees to send funds through your conventional financial institutions?

Well, that’s nonexistent with bitcoin transactions. You can send any amount of bitcoins you want without paying a dime in network fees. Now, sending funds was really fast in the past –more like instant.

But with the increased transaction volumes, your transactions can take some time to reflect.