Founded in the middle of the great financial crisis in 2008, Bitcoin had been valued from just a few cents to a high of nearly $20,000 in 2017. According to 99Bitcoins, which tracks Bitcoin´s “death declarations,” Bitcoin has died 339 times as of January 3, 2019. In 2017 it “died” 125 times and in 2018 only 93 death declarations were made!
There have been some amusing headlines over the years: “Bitcoin Sees the Grim Reaper” (June 2013); “The Bitcoin Bros Have Lost” (August 2016); and my personal favorite: “Bitcoin is ‘dying and will be remembered like pogs'” (February 2015).
But bitcoin’s journey is far from over. And it is decidedly not dead. It has a market cap of $70 billion and a price of about $ 3,700. The Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s scaling solution, has bitcoin processing 75% more transactions – and doing it much more efficiently than it has in the past. As a result, transaction fees have hit their lowest level since 2015. The Bitcoin community is holding strong, having just celebrated Bitcoin’s 10-year anniversary. The world’s top programmers continue making improvements to the Bitcoin network every day, as the Lightning Network shows.
Bitcoin still has a way to go, and it will face more obstacles in the years to come. But it’s been proving the doubters wrong for 10 years now, and it’s getting stronger every day.
Sven Franssen