The first Bitcoin was minted in 2009, worth not even a dollar, was the start for the digital currency revolution. It was created by Satoshi Nakamoto (this still being up in the air as noone knows for sure) as a response to gold, Bitcoin supposedly taking the place as digital gold. The impressive nature behind Bitcoin is that it's built on a blockchain sustained by several computers (nodes) without the need of a middleman. You can move your coins freely between any number of nodes without much hassle other than the fee you have to pay to verify the transaction. This empowers individual users as all they need to have full control over their money is a wallet address (more on what wallets are later).
Bitcoin didn't take off until much later, when the value started actually attract the attention of the general public, notably Bitcoin hit the price of 1 dollar back in february 2011. Few months later it reached it's first bubble, bursting at the price of 31$ and plummeting back down. What makes the bitcoin price unique is that it's decided fully by the investors, as it has no actual real world value. This is decided by the coins market cap, which is determind by multiplying the current total invested amount in Bitcoin with the total amount of coins. The total amount that will ever be minted is limited to 21 million, this is a miniscule amount when compared how many dollars or yen there are in the world. Having a limited amount means that Bitcoin is deflationary, simply holding Bitcoin over time means that the value should increase.
Use cases
A dollar wouldn't be a dollar if you couldn't use it or apply it for goods and services, the same is true for Bitcoin, what can you actually is it for?
The first actual use case for Bitcoin was in May, 2010 when two Papa John's pizzerias offered Bitcoin pizza. For the small price of 10.000 (30$ at the time) Bitcoins you could enjoy a pizza, today no sane person would pay 10 grand in Bitcoin for a pizza, that would be 435.608.921$. As more people adopted Bitcoin and made it part of their portfolio, more retailers and stores followed. With the coin seeing real world applications it's price started to rise. Today you can utilize Bitcoin to buy cars, furnishings, pizza, fast food, tickets, food etc.
Pier-to-pier
Bitcoin requires no middle-man, it is directly transfered between nodes, thus the classification, pier-to-pier. This includes a great deal of privacy as users never really have to give out their name, just their public key, to recieve transactions. Every transaction is verified by a network of miners, running their own nodes and adding every transaction to the ever growing blockchain. Miners running computers doing these calcuations are paid in bitcoin, partly from the generated fees and when creating a new block and minting new bitcoin. This opens up a new income stream, allowing people to "borrow" their computers and generating passive income in Bitcoin simply by keeping their computer running. However this proof of work method of verifying transactions is fairly heavy taxing the computers used, shortening their lifespans. Also this requires alot of power, which comes from whatever source the miners decide. This is the point of a heavy debate amongst people skeptical about Bitcoin as this is very taxing for the enviroment. They argue that traditional banks use less power and thus making them a more enviromentally friendly option. This is a debate I'll save for a different day.
The coin today
Bitcoin is still the largest crypto on the market by far, having almost 50% of the total marketcap for all cryptos on the market. The second coin, Ethereum is at a rough 20%, leagues behind Bitcoin. The coin has had several years to build up a reputation and break through many records aswell as bursting many bubbles. The value for one coin today would change the life for many people on different parts of the world. Where the coin will go and how long it's reign will last is left to see. This is a safe coin to have included in your portfolio as it has survived the test of time.
