Silk Road
When people think about cryptocurrencies and bitcoin in general, the first thought of many is that they are dealing with something in the world of illegality, something that is used to trade weapons and drugs, a payment instrument that is impossible to track and with which the great interests of the criminal world have made an indestructible pact.
Nothing could be more false.
Whenever we think about this, we subconsciously associate Bitcoin with what was the "luckiest" and "most famous" online store of illegal material and services in the world, we talk about Silk Road. Born from an idea of Ross Ulbricht, this shop has linked its payment method, Bitcoin, to the world of organized crime, fomenting the belief of the untraceability of our favorite cryptocurrency.
Silk Road was an e-commerce site that worked through the TOR browser. This e-commerce was specialized in drugs and everything that revolved around the world of illegal activity and goods.
TOR is a protocol through which it is possible to encrypt the data and paths of internet traffic through servers that make it impossible to trace the IP addresses of the computers used in order to be able to reach a site in total anonymity. In this way, by creating his online store on a Tor site, Ulbricht would be in complete anonymity, having his IP hidden.
The payment system of SilkRoad was bitcoin, chosen precisely for its anonymity and confidentiality within the network.
Now, we know very well that Bitcoin is pseudonym and not anonymous.
And that all transactions are tracked in the Blockchain.
Definitely a tool not really suitable for making illegal transactions disappear.
Maybe the usual briefcases full of cash were better ...
However Silk Road was launched in February 2011, after three months of development, the Silk Road business was drugs, pornography, counterfeit products, fake documents and weapons, although the administrators prohibited the sale of goods and services intended to harm other people. The main operators were based in the United States and Great Britain and the main products sold were MDMA, heroin, LSD and cannabis
On October 3, 2013, Silk Road was closed by the FBI with the arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the site. The FBI also seized a large number of Bitcoins. On May 30, 2015, he was sentenced to life in first instance for crimes of conspiracy, cyber fraud, distribution of false identities, money laundering, drug trafficking, internet drug trafficking and conspiracy to trade drugs.
In early November 2013, it was announced that it would reopen and was then definitively closed on November 6, 2014
This was briefly the story of Silk Road and how Bitcoin became a tool fo criminal activity.
Now, it is likely that Bitcoin has been used to launder money but it is a tool not fit for purpose, basically like using a Formula 1 to go shopping.
Satoshi Nakamoto
In this article we are going to explore the legend about the "person" who first created Bitcoin and the Blockchain. We are going to talk about Satoshi Nakamoto.
It all starts in November 2008, when a person with the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin protocol, the whitepaper and started a revolution.
But who is Satoshi? There are various theories that we are going to explore.
We dont know if he is a he or a she, he is a single person or a team. We know that before the birth of Bitcoin as we know, there were a group of crypto enthusiasts who evolved the technology and bitcoin could be their creation.
Anyone who over the years has been referred to as the true Satoshi has always denied and whoever claimed to be, has never brought irrefutable evidence.
It should be noted that in Japanese "satoshi" means "clear, quick and wise thought", "Naka" can mean "medium", "within" or "relationship". "Moto" can mean "origin" or "foundation".
Whether this meant it or not, it has never been possible to trace it back to the person or group of people who invented the Bitcoin system. In fact, Satoshi Nakamoto's last contact was in 2011, when he declared that he had moved on to other projects and that he had left Bitcoin in good hands with Gavin Andresen. From then on Satoshi disappeared, fueling the doubts and the legend of him.
Let's go see the theories developed by fans
- Satoshi Nakamoto is probably a group of HiTEch Companies
Some even suggest that Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola together created Bitcoin, as you can tell from their names:
"Satoshi Nakamoto" ...
- Samsung and Toshiba —- Satoshi
- Nakamichi and Motorola —- Nakamoto
We are not sure about it, but it could be a group of technicians from these companies who invented the technology
- Satoshi Nakamoto is Nick Szabo
Nick Sazbo is an American cryptographer and computer scientist. He is considered by some to be the creator of BTC since he conceived the idea of digital currency by creating Bit Gold, which was its unfortunate predecessor due to its limitations. After some analysis of the BTC whitepaper, some bloggers indicated Szabo as the real Satoshi, a thesis he always disavowed.
- Satoshi Nakamoto is Craig Steven Wright
Craig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, told the BBC on May 2, 2016 that he was the inventor of BTC. But he never brought really interesting evidence in favor of his declaration and even some time later he wrote "sorry" on his blog putting an end to the story.
- Satoshi Nakamoto is Dorian Nakamoto
In March 2014, some sources said they had found the real Satoshi Nakamoto and that he lived in California. Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto is a physicist and engineer. But he withdrew from all entanglement by denying that he was the right Nakamoto.
- Satoshi Nakamoto is Hal Finney
Hal was a cryptographer well before his involvement in BTC and it was on the first mailing list that he received the whitepaper written by Satoshi. Hal has repeatedly claimed that he has been in contact with Satoshi to help him, and his writing style is very similar to that of the whitepaper. However, he showed some e-mails where he wrote to Satoshi. He was also the first to receive a BTC transaction on January 12, 2009 from Satoshi after the creation of the Genesis Block
History of Bitcoin
Learning hystory is always helpful.
Bitcoin, as the first cryptocurrency ever created, has an interesting history, which allows us to understand from which ideology this currency movement started
The known origins of Bitcoin date back to August 2008 with the registration of the bitcoin.org domain, and then follow with the publication on October 31st of the link to the whitepaper signed by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The link was sent in a cryptographic mailing list and the document was titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
On January 3, 2009, the Genesis block, the first block of Bitcoin, was mined from Satoshi's PC
Inside the block, there is the following text message:
The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
A few days later, on January 9, 2009, the first Open Source Bitcoin client (version 0.1) is released. Subsequently, the first 10 Bitcoin transaction takes place, carried out on January 12, 2009 in favor of Finney directly from Nakamoto.
From here begins a slow but inexorable spread of Bitcoin, with the birth of the BitcoinTalk forum
2010 opens with the birth of the first real exchange dedicated to the exchange of Bitcoin. In fact, on March 6, 2010, Bitcoin Market was born.
A few weeks later, on May 22, 2010, the first purchase via Bitcoin is made. These are two pizzas, paid with 10,000 Bitcoins, for a value of 25 Dollars.
On July 17, 2010, Mt.Gox, the historic Bitcoin exchange, was born.
At the beginning of 2011, SilkRoad was born, an online market for narcotics paid in bitcoin
On March 9, 2011, Bitcoin reaches the value of one dollar, reaching a capitalization close to 6 million dollars.
In the month of June, Bitcoin touches $ 10 on MtGox and then collapses after a hacker attack on the exchange.
In the month of July 2012 the giant Coinbase was born. The Bitcoin Foundation was born on October 27.
The first Halving takes place on December 28th, the Bitcoin mining difficulty grows with the Reward going from 50 to 25 BTC per block.
2013 is a very important year, the diffusion of the coin increases and various online shops are starting to accept it for payments.
on March 28, 2013, Bitcoin's capitalization reaches $ 1 billion.
The first Bitcoin ATM is shown in May.
Bitcoin mania breaks out, thanks to the acceptance of BTC payments by the Chinese giant Baidu. The price begins to rise suddenly.
On 29 November 2013, the price exceeded 1000 dollars, a figure that was adjusted on 3 December, with a new high of 1147 dollars. A few days later, however, China's BAN arrives for Bitcoin transactions. This leads to a collapse of the currency, which returns below 700 Dollars.
At the beginning of February 2014, the Mt. Gox exchange suspended withdrawals for technical reasons. At the end of the same month, Mt Gox filed an application for bankruptcy protection in Japan, announcing that it had suffered a theft of 750,000 Bitcoins. Panic arises among the crypto community and the price of Bitcoin suddenly drops below $ 300.
On 8 October 2015, the Winklevoss Brothers created the Gemini exchange.
On January 14, 2016, the Lightning Network WhitePaper was published, Bitcoin's off-chain solution aimed at improving scalability and reducing transaction fees.
In April 2016, Steam begins accepting Bitcoin payment for video games and other online media.
At the end of the year, the price of Bitcoin goes up approaching 1000 Dollars.
2017 is the year of the first records, in which Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies have reached their new ATH, obtaining the maximum diffusion and popularity.
on April 1, 2017, Japan passed a law recognizing Bitcoin as a payment tool by implementing a series of anti-money laundering (KYC) policies for local exchanges.
A hard fork takes place on August 1st, from which Bitcoin Cash is born.
The capitalization of Bitcoin on 20 October 2017 touches 100 billion dollars.
On November 29th, BTC reaches 10 thousand dollars, and on December 1st 2017 the first American Bitcoin Futures is approved.
On December 17, 2017 Bitcoin touches the record value of 19,783.21 Dollars, marking the new ATH.
2018: Crypto Crash, Lightning Network, hashrate growing.
2018 is the year of the great correction, as well as of the crypto crash, which saw the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market drop significantly and channel a downward trend.