History
- Main article: History
A cryptographic system for untraceable payments was first described by David Chaum in 1982.[6] In 1990 Chaum extended this system to create the first cryptographic anonymous electronic cash system.,[7] which became known as ecash. [8] In 1998 Wei Dai published a description of an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system which he called "b-money".[9] Around the same time, Nick Szabo created bit gold.[10][11] Like Bitcoin, Bit gold was a currency system where users would compete to solve a proof of work function, with solutions being cryptographically chained together and published via a distributed property title registry. A variant of Bit gold, called Reusable Proofs of Work, was implemented by Hal Finney.[11]
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper[12][13] on The Cryptography Mailing list at metzdowd.com[14] describing the Bitcoin protocol.
The Bitcoin network came into existence on 3 January 2009 with the release of the first Bitcoin client, wxBitcoin, and the issuance of the first Bitcoins.[15][16][17] A year after, the initial exchange rates for Bitcoin were set by individuals on the bitcointalk forums.[Citation Needed] The most significant transaction involved a 10,000 BTC pizza.[18] Today, the majority of Bitcoin exchanges occur on the MtGox Bitcoin exchange.
In 2011, Wikileaks,[19] Freenet,[20] Singularity Institute,[21] Internet Archive,[22] Free Software Foundation[23] and others, began to accept donations in Bitcoin. The Electronic Frontier Foundation did so for a while but has since stopped, citing concerns about a lack of legal precedent about new currency systems, and because they "generally don't endorse any type of product or service."[24] Some small businesses had started to adopt Bitcoin. LaCie, a public company, accepts Bitcoin for its Wuala service.[25]
In 2012, BitPay reports of having over 1000 merchants accepting Bitcoin under its payment processing service.[26]
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