Nearly a decade ago, Satoshi Nakamoto started mining the first bitcoins. Here’s what happened since then.

Nearly a decade ago, Satoshi Nakamoto started mining the first bitcoins. Here's what happened since then.

The Entire History of Bitcoin in a Single Infographic

<h5>DGC</h5>
<p>Digital Currency Group (DGC), the firm known for investing and developing businesses that deal in <a href="https://futurism.com/?s=bitcoin">bitcoin</a> and other cryptocurrencies, has just purchased CoinDesk.</p>
<figure id="attachment_20908" style="width: 273px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-20908" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/01/physical-bitcoins-300x180.jpg" alt="Bitcoin" width="273" height="164" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image credit: Bitcoin</figcaption></figure>
<p>The publication’s business and editorial teams are set to merge with DGC’s new events division, which will double the size of its current team and prompt a new New York based subsidiary dedicated to providing news coverage, research and events.</p>
<p>Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Barry Silbert, did not disclose the amount it cost to acquire CoinDesk, however DGC was already one of the principal investors behind the publication when it started in 2013.</p>
<p>This also marks DCG’s first acquisition with Ryan Selkis, Director of Growth at DCG at the helm of the merged media group and events division.</p>
<h5>CoinDesk</h5>
<p>CoinDesk now joins several of DCG’s other companies, such as Genesis Global Trading, an institutional-focused digital currency trading desk, and Grayscale Investments, an asset manager that manages the Bitcoin Investment Trust.</p>
<p>The merger also prompts the shift from CoinDesk’s headquarters from London to New York. CoinDesk’s team currently has 10 in-house employees including contributors spread across various offices between the two major cities.</p>
<p>&#8220;It has been impressive to watch CoinDesk&#8217;s evolution over the past 2-1/2 years and we are committed to investing in new products and people that will further enhance the CoinDesk and Consensus brands,&#8221; <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/14/bitcoin-investor-buys-index-operator-coindesk.html">Silbert said</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, CoinDesk’s CEO Jeremy Bonney is “transitioning out gradually.” Bonney will stay on board as CoinDesk finalizes the merger with DCG and will remain as a strategic adviser for the company.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


Future Society

Media outfit, CoinDesk merges with DGC, creating a New York based subsidiary focusing on news coverage, research and events that deal in bitcoin and other cyrptocurrencies.

Digital Currency Group Acquires CoinDesk

<h5>Bitcoin</h5>
<p>If you aren’t aware, “<a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp" target="_blank">blockchain</a>” is essentially a public ledger of all of the Bitcoin transactions that have ever been done. If you need a comparison that fits with more traditional banking, the blockchain is like a full history of banking transactions, and ultimately, the blockchain database is shared by all nodes participating in a system.</p>
<p>And Tunisa just became the first country to put their nation’s currency on a blockchain.</p>
<p>In the end, this makes them the very first nation to offer its national currency for transmittance through cryptographic technology.</p>
<p>The country, home to over 10 million citizens, is located on northern African coast. And it will now enjoy national payment advancements as <a href="https://monetas.net/">Monetas </a>(which herald&#8217;s itself as &#8220;the world&#8217;s most advanced transaction platform&#8221;) brings the blockchain to Tunisia’s Dinar.</p>
<p>“We believe that mobile financial services are rapidly growing in the region, and Monetas software grants individuals economic freedom and prosperity through the use of a transaction platform that is magnitudes cheaper than any alternative, interoperable across mobile networks, and can process new financial tools,” <a href="http://dcebrief.com/tunisia-becomes-first-nation-to-put-nations-currency-on-a-blockchain/">says Monetas CEO Johann Gevers</a> to TechMoran.</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-20957 alignright" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/01/1024px-Modern_cash_metaphore-300x200.jpg" alt="Zach Copley" width="269" height="179" /></p>
<h5>Future of Currency</h5>
<p>Gevers then continued by clarifying exactly what Tunisian’s can expect from the Monetas system in 2016. He states, “The Monetas deployment in Tunisia is the first application for a full ecosystem of digital payments. With the La Poste Tunisienne Android application powered by Monetas, Tunisians can use their smartphones to make instant mobile money transfers, pay for goods and services online and in person, send remittance, pay salaries and bills, and manage official government identification documents.”</p>
<p>While familiar with the idea of electronic flat currency through the country’s use of the eDinar, the partnership with Monetas will now improve on the concept through blockchain technology.</p>
<p>There are over 600 thousand people who will soon be transitioned to the new system via the Tunisian post, in partnership with the national government and La Poste Tunisian.</p>


Robots & Machines

Tunisia has just became the first nation to offer its national currency through cryptographic technology.

Tunisia Puts Nation’s Currency on the Blockchain

<h5>Digital Currency and Society</h5>
<p>Digital currencies and the blockchain have swept the nation in the past 24 months. <a href="https://ripple.com/insights/blockchain-investment-by-financial-institutions-in-one-chart/">2015 saw most financial institutions jump into the fray, conducting research and making investments in companies founded on distributed ledgers</a>.</p>
<p>There may come a time when decentralized digital currencies and distributed ledgers will <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/the-real-value-of-bitcoin-and-blockchain-technology/" target="_blank">become the norm</a>, yet the large majority still lack a general understanding of their usefulness and only a handful of people are capable of building on top of them. Stanford University, known for being ahead of the curve, has recognized this and has begun introducing a new lab course on Bitcoin Engineering. The course is meant to teach students more about Bitcoin and how to build Bitcoin-enabled applications.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-20908" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/01/physical-bitcoins.jpg" alt="Bitcoin" width="2560" height="1536" /></p>
<p><em>Source: informationelite.com</em></p>
<h5>Stanford’s Bitcoin Course</h5>
<p>Students taking the course will start with a two-week introduction to Bitcoin, and Bitcoin computing. They will then be taught how to build Bitcoin-enabled versions of various popular Internet services. In the succeeding weeks students will be provided with the code needed to illustrate the basic mechanics of an Internet service that is powered by Bitcoi .</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://bitcoin.stanford.edu/" target="_blank">syllabus</a>, these internet services include a Bitcoin-based Instagram where prices can be set on Instagram photos, a Bitcoin-based Twitter where micropayments are given for retweets, and a Bitcoin-based WordPress where you can monetize your blog by charging bitcoin for each page view.</p>


Stanford University is introducing a lab course focused on Bitcoin Engineering where students will build Bitcoin-enabled versions of Twitter, Instagram, Wordpress, Google, and more.

Stanford is Now Offering a Course on Bitcoin Engineering

<h5>What It Is</h5>
<p>Earlier this week, <a href="http://www.principality-pontinha.com/">Pontinha</a>, which is the smallest country in the world, announced that it will be adopting bitcoin as its national currency. The revelation comes thanks to Prime Minister Joby Weeks via <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156214886010063&amp;set=a.450548700062.374450.872995062&amp;type=3&amp;theater">a post on Facebook</a>. No, really. And if you think that&#8217;s a little odd, hold on, because things are only going to get stranger.</p>
<p>To begin, Pontinha is a small island off the shore of Madeira, Portugal. It has an old Templar Fort that belonged to the king of Portugal over a hundred years ago. He sold the island to a British family that was of Templar lineage before the fall of the monarchy, and the family held the island in trust for over a century.</p>
<p>They eventually sold it to a Portuguese art teacher who is now known as Prince D. Renato Barros. Of his little island nation, Barros stated in an interview with <em><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/14/experience-i-founded-my-own-country">The Guardian</a></em> in 2014, &#8220;There are four citizens: me, my wife, my son and my daughter.&#8221; Yes, there are only four people living in this country.</p>
<p>Currently, the tiny nation is in the process of becoming a sovereign nation. Obviously, it won&#8217;t exactly rival the other major world powers, but it is trying to get recognized in its own, original way—by turning to Bitcoin.</p>
<h5>The Implications</h5>
<p>Among the potential developments of this sovereign state—soon to be renamed Atlantis—is the prospect of setting up a banking connection to corporations that can legally represent cryptocurrency-fueled companies across the world and in cyberspace. Weeks also suggested the possibility of an e-passport and an e-residency, similar to Estonia.</p>
<p>Aside from that, Weeks wants to establish an Ambassador Club, wherein citizens of Atlantis can make and maintain contacts from all over the world. You can listen to a discussion of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/juanfs7/bitcoin-officially-the-national-currency-of-pohntina-atlantis">the announcement on Soundcloud</a>.</p>


It's not exactly a big nation, but it's about to undergo some big changes. The soon-to-be Atlantis is going to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency.

Tiny Country of Atlantis to Adopt Bitcoin as its National Currency

<h5>The Future of Blockchain</h5>
<p class="annotatable">Recently, it was revealed that Goldman Sachs, a New York-based financial titan, has developed its own cryptocurrency. This was designed for a settlement system related to trading stocks, bonds, and other assets.</p>
<p class="annotatable">Ultimately, they <a href="http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;co1=AND&amp;d=PG01&amp;s1=20150332395&amp;OS=20150332395&amp;RS=20150332395?p=cite_Brian_Cohen_or_Bitcoin_Magazine" target="_blank">made a patent application</a> last year for a new virtual currency called SETLCoin, which makes it easier and faster to trade securities and settle those trades. However, the patent application was published only recently (bureaucracy, you know).</p>
<p class="annotatable">But notably, while SETLCoin is a virtual currency, it isn’t bitcoin (a form of digital currency that is created and held electronically). To that extent, the financial giant seems more interested in the technology behind bitcoin, known as blockchain.</p>
<p>Indeed, in its Emerging Theme Radar research note, Goldman Sachs notes that bitcoin could just be the “opening act” for blockchain technology.</p>
<p>If you aren&#8217;t aware, &#8220;<a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp">blockchain</a>&#8221; is a public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions that have ever been executed. The note recently released by Goldman Sachs says, &#8220;Once considered the underlying pipes of bitcoin, this technology is ushering in a new set of tools to cut costs and challenge the profit pool of the middle-man with a promise to make centralised institutions obsolete. This solution promises to not just address consumer opportunities but also those for the far more lucrative enterprise.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, the author of the report, Robert D. Boroujerdi, notes that there remain “roadblocks” before the blockchain technology can be fully realized.</p>
<h5>Blockchain Technology Outside Bitcoin</h5>
<p>Boroujerdi highlights the decentralized nature as the major advantage of the bitcoin blockchain over current financial ledger systems, arguing that they are able to operate more efficiently, more securely, and at lower costs. &#8220;This decentralized, cryptography-based solution cuts out the middle man. It has the potential to redefine transactions and the back office of a multitude of different industries.&#8221;</p>
<p>Boroujerdi also notes potential problems with the technology, which include restricted scalability. But nevertheless, he notes that the real star is blockchain, saying &#8220;Those who wrote off bitcoin may have missed the golden egg – an underlying technology driver aimed at streamlining, potentially, a multitude of businesses. Put simply, the blockchain can live outside a world of bitcoin.&#8221;</p>


Goldman Sachs releases a report on the potential of blockchain technology to redefine business transactions.

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