We need to start with a little bit of history. Back in January 2009, an unknown genius and enthusiast under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomoto revolutionized the world of digital assets and blockchain technology, laying the foundation for an industry that in 15 years has gone from entertainment for enthusiasts to a serious phenomenon with a capitalization of trillions of dollars. Now cryptocurrencies are used by individuals, businesses and governments as a tool for daily payments, international settlements, asset preservation and even participate in the formation of annual budgets and national funds.
Of course, big money and big power coming into the industry has already dispelled some of the former spirit and romance of crypto transactions. However, these funds and attention have provided the birth of new projects and solutions to problems that Satoshi may not have thought of at all.
During the period of its formation, BTC has experienced a large number of divisions – “forks” designed to solve different problems. For example, scaling and increasing the block size to reduce the commission in LTC (even with a change of algorithm), increasing the number of transactions in a block as BCH. There were also projects that aimed to use an existing algorithm, but make their own product without being tied to the underlying coin. The bifurcation (or fork) mechanism assumes that all holders of the primary token will receive a proportional or equal amount of the new coin after the split. Self-starting saves creators from such a problem.
During this time, the main cryptocurrency has experienced many ups and downs of the rate, various shocks. However, it still remains the favorite asset of experienced miners and large companies, as well as the choice of conservative investors.
Author: Saifedean Ammous, an expert in cryptocurrency economics.