It’s 14 years since the first Bitcoin (BTC) transaction was initiated, with its anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto acting as the sender.
For the transaction that occurred on January 12, 2009, Nakamoto transferred the 10 BTC to computer scientist Hal Finney, the first-ever recipient on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Commenting on the transaction, Peter Smith, the CEO of Bitcoin blockchain explorer platform Blockchain.com noted it was a period of ‘planting seeds.’
Finney’s prominence in the crypto space
Notably, Finney has over the years gained prominence in the cryptocurrency space, as he was among the first people to embrace Bitcoin, even mining the asset. In this line, Finney is also among the few individuals who are known to have communicated with Satoshi.
“When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test,” he said in a previous post.
Furthermore, Finney became famous for the first Bitcoin tweet ever in 2009 when he appeared to project the asset’s potential.
Bitcoin’s growth
Since the first transaction, Bitcoin has evolved over the years. For instance, in 2009, when the first transaction was initiated, the maiden cryptocurrency was mainly in an experimental stage.
The growth of the asset is also highlighted by a recent Finbold report that noted that the Bitcoin blockchain saw over $8 trillion in transactions in 2022 despite the bear market.
It’s worth mentioning that the asset’s growth has resulted in Bitcoin receiving different use cases to emerge as an investment asset and a payment option. Overall, Bitcoin is moving to emerge as a mainstream finance product.
However, Bitcoin has emerged among the best-performing assets over the last decades despite undergoing phases of significant price correction.
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