The progress of Cryptocurrencies

.Bitcoin launched the crypto world in 2008 and fueled an industry that literally changed the world.
.Smart contracts have emerged thanks to Ethereum and ERC20
.This has enabled the rise of DeFi, which has paved the way for many decentralized services that are accessed by more and more people today.
.Ten years ago, Bitcoin emerged as the first cryptocurrency. A lot has happened since then. Let's take a look at the history of cryptocurrency to understand the significant changes it has brought about.
Bitcoin starting point
The concept of digital money is not a new concept. Before cryptocurrencies, many attempts were made to create a digital currency. The main problem they faced was the problem of double spending. To prevent it from being copied and effectively counterfeited, a digital asset must only be usable a single time.

More than a decade before the emergence of cryptocurrencies, this concept was introduced by computer engineer Wei Dai. Wei Dai published an article in 1998 in which he explained the concept of “B-money”. In this article he described the idea of ​​a digital currency that could be sent along with a series of untraceable digital pseudonyms. That same year, another initiative called Bit Gold was drafted by blockchain pioneer Nick Szabo. Bit Gold has also explored the idea of ​​creating a decentralized digital currency. Szabo's idea stemmed from inadequacies in the traditional financial system, such as requiring metal to create coins and reducing the amount of trust needed to create transactions. Although both were not officially launched, they served as inspiration for Bitcoin.

The emergence of Bitcoin
Satoshi Nakamoto published the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” in which he explains the functions of the Bitcoin blockchain network. This day in Bitcoin's history paved the way for the events that followed. Four months later, Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has remained a secret to this day, created the first block of the Bitcoin network and enabled the effective use of blockchain technology. This first block created is also known as the Starting Block. The first recorded purchase of goods with Bitcoin was when Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. The day this transaction took place is still known as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

The beginning of the cryptocurrency market
After Bitcoin emerged as the first cryptocurrency, solutions had to be found for its trading. In March 2010, the first cryptocurrency exchange called bitcoinmarket.com (now defunct) appeared. In July of the same year, Mt. Gox is also available. Between 2011 and 2013, Bitcoin managed to reach parity with the US Dollar in February. During this year, several competing cryptocurrencies emerged, and by May 2013, there were 10 digital assets, including Litecoin, in the cryptocurrency market. In August, another important crypto asset, XRP (Ripple), joined them.
Release of Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens
On July 30, 2015, the Ethereum network was launched. This crypto asset, which currently ranks second in terms of market capitalization, brought smart contracts and eventually decentralized finance to the cryptocurrency world. These allow the Ethereum blockchain to host its native currency, Ether (ETH), as well as run an entire ecosystem on the blockchain. The smallest unit of Ether is also known as Wei (0.0000000000000000001 ETH). If you want to learn more about Ethereum, here is an article that explains everything you need to know about the second largest cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies that do not have their own private blockchain but use the blockchain of another crypto asset are called tokens. Those on the Ethereum network are called ERC-20 tokens. The first ERC-20 token was issued in 2015. The name of this crypto asset was Augur. Since then, many tokens have been created on the Ethereum blockchain. There are currently over 200,000 ERC tokens, meaning there is a large cryptocurrency ecosystem running on a single blockchain. The cryptocurrency world has never stopped since then. Prices reached an all-time high in Bitcoin history in January 2018, and many new crypto assets have launched since then, including EOS (July 2017), Tron (September 2017), and Cardano (October 2017). The cryptocurrency market currently hosts more than 2,000 digital currencies and continues to expand.