Virtual currency. (2010) ⚡ Threat to the dollar. (2020)

A how-it-started salute thread to the first #Bitcoin news article on its 10th anniversary.

🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂

2/ The first MSM article on #Bitcoin appeared in @pcworld on December 10, 2010.

A few articles before it referenced BTC (in brief or in passing), but this article had a new narrative: Bitcoin for censorship-resistant payments.
3/ @wikileaks had been de-platformed by PayPal and the author was out to explore how #Bitcoin, an upstart digital money might come to its aid.

How about an entire currency based on peer-to-peer technology?
4/ The idea was weeks old – first suggested by @nardoism in November – but it proved polarizing.

@orionwl thought Wikileaks accepting #Bitcoin would be a “great moment.” @jgarzik argued it might encourage governments to attack the network.

https://t.co/X6vGklqrB0
5/ But if Bitcoiners were split on the idea. The author made it clear he thought #Bitcoin might be ready for primetime.

After all, he argued #BTC was then increasingly being used in trade.
6/ More people, he noted, were running the client and mining #Bitcoin for a chance to earn rewards.

At that time, someone running the software could expect to receive 50 BTC every 3 weeks.
7/ Back then, the article shows the idea that #Bitcoin was a “store of value” or that it had “intrinsic value” (as an alternative to state money) hadn’t yet been embraced.

The accepted thesis was bitcoins had value as it was payment “for services and goods.”
8) Other #Bitcoin descriptions are more familiar. You can tell the author was enamored with the idea Bitcoin could be an unstoppable software for value exchange.

Given the internet censorship, this censorship-resistance made Bitcoin a powerful tool.
9) Was the author fully convinced of #Bitcoin’s success?

No, but he speculated it could be a tool to inhibit government overreach on the internet.
10) Despite the positive review, one Bitcoiner wasn’t a fan. That would be Satoshi Nakamoto, who thought the attention could be catastrophic.

He left the BitcoinTalk forum, never to return, the next day.
https://t.co/UohOySrIV2
11) But since #Bitcoin is decentralized, the idea stuck. @wikileaks began accepting Bitcoin in June the next year.

https://t.co/fqArODRhmD
12) How far have we come?

The @Pcworld article, written by @KeirThomsBryant, can be read in full below.

https://t.co/1WFvi5APMm

More from Crypto

You are running out of time to get ahead in cryptocurrency.

You know what's coming:

🔺️ Regulation
🔺️ More shutdowns
🔺️ Banks deciding who gets to do business

It's time you got your own crypto wallet.

Don't know how? I'll show you.

/////THREAD\\\\\

METAMASK

What's metamask? It's a wallet. That you -- I mean YOU -- own.

You see, when you buy crypto through an exchange like CoinBase, you own it but only kind of.

If they get

🔺 Hacked
🔺 Shutdown
🔺 Servers crash

-- your money is STUCK.

We are gonna avoid that 👇


First thing,

Go to

https://t.co/JXAp9o5RzJ

You can download it on your computer. It's a browser extension.

Alternatively, go to the app store on your Android or iPhone. It's there too.

As part of the setup process, you will choose a password.

More importantly though...

SEED PHRASE

As you follow the setup process, you will be given a 12-word seed phrase.

WRITE. THIS. DOWN.

Take it down and guard it like the map to Davey Jones' Locker.

THESE ARE THE ONLY WAY TO RECOVER YOUR ACCOUNT.

DO NOT LOSE.

We good? Great.

Let's continue.


Once you're all setup, your MetaMask wallet is going to look something like the picture below.

See where it says Crypto Address? That's where your actual address will be.

It'll be a random arrangement of letters, numbers, etc.

Click on it to copy to your clipboard

NEXT STEP
Back with another #FreeLoveFriday. Last time, we covered how Mastercoin/@Omni_Layer pioneered digital asset issuance on blockchains. Today, let’s discuss @Chainlink and the vital role it plays in connecting blockchains to the real world.


I have said repeatedly that digital asset issuance is the killer application for blockchains. The next frontier is bringing real world assets to networks like @AvalancheAVAX, but we often face a significant problem:

Namely, how do you get data from the real world onto blockchains and into applications running on them? More critically, how do you achieve that securely and transparently in real-time? Smart contracts are tamper-proof, but they're only as reliable as their input data.

Enter ChainLink in September 2017, with a whitepaper outlining a vision for a decentralized network of “oracles,” entities that inject facts from the external world into blockchains in a suitable format for smart contracts.

Until ChainLink, oracles were trusted and centralized. This is a huge problem for high-value assets and smart contracts. High value projects, such as @CelsiusNetwork, @synthetix_io, @Aaveaave and others depend critically on oracle data.

You May Also Like