The concept of ecash was conceived by David Chaum way back in 1983. In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto, a supposed creator of Bitcoin, took the idea of digital currency a little further by publishing a white paper on the functionality of a Bitcoin blockchain network. On January 3, 2009, the first Bitcoin block was successfully mined, which paved the way for blockchain technology to thrive and become widely available. By the year 2017, the cryptocurrency had risen in value to almost $20,000 per Bitcoin. This sudden rise in value made early investors millionaires overnight and caused a great stir in the industry. A study conducted in 2019 shows that there are over 150 million Bitcoin user addresses worldwide, and 24 million Bitcoin wallet addresses in the market. Today, more than 120 companies worldwide accept this virtual currency as a means of payment. Though over 3,000 altcoins exist in the cryptocurrency market today, Bitcoin remains the most used cryptocurrency.
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