Blockchain technology is set to become one of the biggest innovations of the 21st century, given its ripple effect on sectors ranging from finance and manufacturing to education. The history of blockchain begins 30 years ago, in the 1990s.

In comparison, quite recently, the popularity of this technology has begun to grow and continues to do the same, conquering the whole world.

1991-2008: the early years of blockchain technology

How did blockchain appear?

Work of cryptographers Stuart Haber and W. Scott Starrett gave birth to the blockchain in 1991. Initially, the principle of the blockchain was meant to place digital documents without the possibility of their return or falsification on blocks. Having modernized their idea in 1992, they included the Merkle tree in it, which increased efficiency. It helped the system collect more documents in a single block. 

However, it was in 2008 that the history of blockchain began to take hold, thanks to the work of one man or group of men named Satoshi Nakamoto. The document called Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system was published.

Satoshi Nakamoto is considered the brain behind blockchain technology and Bitcoin. Little is known about him and no one knows for sure whether it was one person or a group of people. People create and make up theories about who it could be. But there is no indisputable evidence in favor of one or another theory, so the identity of the creator of bitcoin may remain a mystery of history.

Briefly, the creation of Satoshi allowed a person to carry out digital transactions directly with another participant, without relying on an intermediary, such as a bank, to process payments. After this blockchain technology started to receive more attention.

After this blockchain technology started to receive more attention. And the first technical paper for this technology was published in 2009. In that document, he detailed how well the technology was equipped to increase digital trust, given the aspect of decentralization that meant no one would ever control anything.

2008-2013: Bitcoin emergence 

Most people think that Bitcoin and Blockchain are the same thing. However, this is not the case, since one of them is the basic technology that ensures the operation of most applications, one of which is cryptocurrency. Bitcoin launched the cryptocurrency world in 2008 and gave rise to an industry that is literally changing the world and our lives. 

This year, bitcoin appeared, which was the first to use blockchain technology. Satoshi Nakamoto described it in his white paper as an electronic peer-to-peer system. Nakamoto formed a genesis block, from which other blocks connected to each other were extracted during the mining process, resulting in one of the largest chains of blocks carrying various information and transactions.

After the appearance of Bitcoin as the first cryptocurrency, it was necessary to find solutions for trading with its help.

The next step was the appearance of the first crypto exchange bitcoinmarket.com in March 2010 (no longer exists). In the period from 2011 to 2013, bitcoin managed to achieve parity with the US dollar. Competing cryptocurrencies also appeared: there were 10 digital assets on the cryptocurrency market in May 2013, including Litecoin. Another major crypto asset called XP (Ripple) joined in August of the same year.

As the Bitcoin boosted, the first hacker attacks appeared. In June 2011, the first hacking of Mt.Gox occurred: 2000 BTC was stolen, the value of which at that time was about 30,000 US dollars.

2013-2015: Ethereum & tokens

In 2011, Bitcoin turned out to be a crazy idea, but not for Vitalik Butorin, who is a great programmer and creator of Etherium. He pinned his hopes not on the cryptocurrency, but on the blockchain as a whole. Buterin believed that this should change the world, and digital currency is just an example of using blockchain.

Therefore, in 2013, he and other blockchain enthusiasts created Etherium. Ether is the second most popular cryptocurrency. That's why we have a currency and blockchain - Ether and Ethereum.

The Ethereum blockchain has become one of the largest applications of blockchain technology, given its ability to support smart contracts in 2015. A smart contract is like a legal contract. There is always a third party in legal contracts. But there are smart contracts inside the Ethereum system - this is the same contract, only digital and without third parties. Its execution is guaranteed by a computer program.

Thanks to this feature, the Ethereum blockchain processes the largest number of daily transactions. Cryptocurrencies that do not have their own blockchain, but use the blockchain of another crypto asset, are called tokens. ERC-20 are tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

The first ERC token was launched back in 2015. It was called Augur. Since then, many tokens have been created on the Ethereum blockchain.

What happened next

Since then, the world of cryptocurrencies has not stood still. Prices reached a historic high in Bitcoin's history in January 2018. Subsequently, many new crypto assets appeared, including EOS (July 2017), Tron (September 2017) and Cardano (October 2017). 

Future

The future of blockchain technology looks bright in part because governments and businesses are investing heavily in an effort to drive innovation and applications.It is becoming increasingly obvious that one day there will be a public blockchain that everyone can use. Blockchain proponents expect that the technology will help automate most of the tasks solved by professionals in all sectors.

In the future, this technology should also find application in basic elements, such as an Internet search engine. And even now we have many decentralized apps, which are more reliable. 

The emerging world of DeFi and Web 3 is our future!

You learned the history of blockchain. Now test your knowledge!
How many stages in the history of blockchain?
5 stages
4 stages
3 stages
6 stages
When did the history of blockchain begin?
In the 2000s.
In the 1990s
In the 2010s.
In the 1980s
When was Etherium created?
In 2015
In 2008
In 2010
In 2013
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