The incredible performance of Bitcoin during the last week (28 November - 3 December 2017)

The exchange price has reached and passed $11,500

A Brief History of Bitcoin - 2/2 -

2014:

In January, Zynga announces to be testing bitcoin for purchasing in-game assets in its games. Hotels in Las Vegas, TigerDirect and Overstock.com^]start accepting bitcoin.

In early February, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox, suspends withdrawals citing technical issues. By the end of the month, Mt. Gox reports that 744,000 bitcoins have been stolen. Months before the filing, the popularity of Mt. Gox had waned as users experienced difficulties withdrawing funds.

In June, it is announced that bitcoin payment service provider BitPay will become the new sponsor of St. Petersburg Bowl, renamed the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. 

In July, Newegg and Dell start accepting bitcoin.

In September TeraExchange, LLC, receives approval from the U.S.Commodity Futures Trading Commission "CFTC" to begin listing an over-the-counter swap product based on the price of a bitcoin. The CFTC swap product approval marks the first time a U.S. regulatory agency approved a bitcoin financial product.

In December, 2014 Microsoft begins to accept bitcoin to buy Xbox games and Windows software.

A documentary film, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, is released, with interviews with bitcoin users, such as a computer programmer and a drug dealer.

2015:

In March, 21 Inc announced it had raised 116 million USD in venture funding, the largest amount for any digital currency-related companies.

As of August it is estimated that 160,000 merchants accept bitcoin payments. Barclays announced that they would become the first UK high street bank to start accepting bitcoin, with a plan to facilitate users to make charitable donations using the cryptocurrency outside their systems.

In October 2015, a proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium to add a codepoint for the bitcoin symbol.4

2016:

In March, the Cabinet of Japan  recognises virtual currencies like bitcoin as having a function similar to real money. In April, Steam starts accepting bitcoin as payment for video games and other online media.

In July,  researchers publish a paper showing that by November 2013 bitcoin commerce was no longer driven by illicit activities but instead by legitimate enterprises. Uber switches to bitcoin in Argentina after the government blocks credit card companies from dealing with the alternative taxi system.

In August, a major bitcoin exchange gets hacked and nearly 120,000 BTC (around $60m) are stolen.

In September, the number of bitcoin ATMs has doubled up to 771 ATMs worldwide.

In November, the Swiss Railway operator SBB (CFF) upgraded all their automated ticket machines so that bitcoin could be bought from them using the scanner on the ticket machine to scan the bitcoin address on a phone app.

2017:

The number of businesses accepting bitcoin continues to increase and Japan passes a law to accept bitcoin as a legal payment method.

Russia announces that it will legalise the use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Norway’s largest online bank, Skandiabanken, integrates bitcoin accounts. Exchange trading volumes continue to increase.

In August bitcoin splits into two derivative digital currencies, the classic bitcoin (BTC) and the Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The split has been called the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. in December, Bitcoin price breaks the $11,000 line.

Bitcoin Financial Performance

This chart shows the financial performance of Bitcoin, compared to other assets during the year 2017

The yearly growth has been 663% so far, and it keeps growing rapidly, day after day.

A Brief History of Bitcoin - 1/2 -

2008:

The domain name bitcoin.org is registered online. After 2 months a paper entitled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" was passed around a cryptography mailing list. The name linked to the paper is Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin.

2009:

Bitcoin is processed through a software program that is "mined" by people seeking bitcoin in a lottery-based system. Over the next 20 years the total amount of circulating coins will be of 21 million approximately.

2010: 

Pioneering merchants started accepting bitcoin as a payment. One of the first transactions operated was the purchase of pizza. Today, the amount of bitcoin used to purchase the pizzas is valued around $100 million.

2011:

Because of its inherent anonymous nature, Bitcoin is used for drug trade on the internet black market. In a way, drug trafficking websites legitimised Bitcoin as a means of commerce.

In April, Nakamoto sent Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn this email: "I've moved on to other things. The future of Bitcoin is in good hands." In his wake, Nakamoto left behind a vast collection of writings, a premise on the workings of Bitcoin, and the most influential cryptocurrency ever created.

2012:

The Bitcoin Foundation was launched, to promote the global growth of Bitcoin through the promotion of the open source protocol. 

WordPress starts accepting bitcoins.

2013:

Robocoin and Bitcoiniacs launch the first bitcoin ATM in Vancouver, Canada, allowing clients to sell or purchase bitcoin currency at a coffee shop. The University of Nicosia (Cyprus) and the Chinese internet giant Baidu allow clients to pay with bitcoins.

2014:
Microsoft and Overstock start accepting bitcoins.

Bitcoin: Market Capitalisation

The market capitalisation of bitcoins, compared with the world major companies and financial bodies.

Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency Market

This chart shows the percentage of bitcoin capitalisation in the overall cryptocurrency market. It is based on the first 50 cryptocurrencies.

The official trailer of the Bitcoin documentary "The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin"