The firstborn cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is currently the highest valued coin to exit. It took 11 years of an expedition for bitcoin to rise from $1 to $41666.1. All thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto, who conceived it intending to build a world devoid of financial inequalities.
Termed as mirage and bubble by legendary Warren Buffet, bitcoin has now conquered the universe with its advantages. It is now traded on several platforms and is now accepted by various companies, retailers, and legally by the Republic of El Salvador.
Here is an article that lists a brief history of acceptance of bitcoin and its current uses in the market.
Tracing back the roots
Back in 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney, executing the first bitcoin transaction. Commercially, Papa John’s was the first among all to accept bitcoin as a formal mode of payment, exchanging 10,000 bitcoins for delivery of two pizzas in Florida.
Next year, a digital rights group named Electronic Frontier Foundation stood up for bitcoin, followed by Wikileaks and WordPress, which started accepting them for their fundraising events.
Slowly, it gained momentum with the inception of the first official bitcoin payment service, Bitpay. The platform attracted more than 850 retailers and merchants who accepted it for their business deals and consumer pays.
On the educational front, the University of Nicosia was the first institute to accept bitcoin as tuition fees. An Ivy League school, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, followed its footsteps in the consequent years.
Now it was the turn of tech companies to show their support for this digital currency. Dell, Microsoft, Zynga were the first ones in this category to offer their services for bitcoins.
Eventually, it became an international sensation, witnessing an eye from the governments. Japan was the first official government to recognize it and correlate it with its fiat banknotes.
A lot has changed since then. On the one hand, countries like the UK, the USA, Canada are making efforts to incorporate them into their economic system; however, some nations like Nepal, China, and South Korea have imposed a ban on it due to its decentralized attributes.
How to use Bitcoin?
Everybody talks about trading bitcoins, but nobody says where to spend bitcoins. No worries, we are here for your rescue.
Let’s begin with the basic requirements of life, education. Besides the above listed two universities, institutes like King’s College, New York, FPT University, Vietnam, European School of Management and Technology, Germany, Innovation, and Entrepreneur Business School, Spain, and The University of Cumbria, United Kingdom also accept bitcoin for tuition fees. Who thought mining a coin could pay for your schooling.
Third-party platforms like Twitch, Wikipedia, Namecheap, Dish Network, and ProtonMail offer their advanced SaaS, PaaS, and AI-based facilities for bitcoins. Online gambling forums like Cloudbet review have also joined the league.
Various restaurants, travel agencies, and supermarkets also acknowledge bitcoins. Some of them are Baskin-Robbins, Starbucks, Home Depot, Destinia, BTCtrip.com, WebJet Exclusives, Whole Foods, and the list goes on.
