Crypto Currency Facts of 2023: People are learning how to buy Crypto Currency and searching for easy ways to purchase Bitcoin as interest in cryptocurrency rises. Those who are interested in investing in digital assets have a reason to learn more about how they work. Nevertheless, the truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction when it comes to crypto.
Although cryptocurrencies have been a wild ride, and we don’t know where they’re headed in the future, here are some equally wild facts about them.
5 Fun Facts About Cryptocurrency
Pizza Was the First Commercial Use of Bitcoin
An American man paid 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas on May 22, 2010. It is generally recognized that this was the first commercial Bitcoin transaction.
One bitcoin was worth just over half a cent at that time when 10,000 bitcoin were worth about $40 each. This amount of bitcoin is worth more than $350 million today.
A Total Of 9,500 Cryptocurrencies Exist
At the end of March 2022, more than 9,500 cryptocurrencies were in circulation. They are all out there, some of them requiring their own wallets, but you can’t buy them all in exchange.
Creating a cryptocurrency is relatively easy, which is why many coins and tokens are available. According to March 2022, the top 20 coins account for 87% of cryptocurrency market capitalization.
The Total Amount of Bitcoins Is Limited
A limit of 21 million was set when Bitcoin’s protocol was established. At some point, bitcoins will no longer be able to be mined.
Bitcoin mining involves helping complete transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, and you can receive bitcoins as a reward. Approximately every four years, the reward halves every 210,000 blocks. According to some estimates, there are almost 19 million Bitcoins in circulation as of March 2022. As a result, there are still a few million Bitcoins that have not been released, which is why mining remains popular.
The first wallet program, just setting up and verifying your account information, could take as long as several hours. After this, the rest of the setup process takes an additional 30 minutes and has to be done whenever you want to send or receive bitcoins. Once set up, the next step is to create a wallet. A wallet is simply the list of all of your bitcoins and the key to accessing them. We will go over how to make a wallet in a later section.
The Man Wants His Digital Wallet Back by Excavating a Landfill
James Howells, a Welsh resident, threw out a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins in 2013. His search for the drive began when he realized how much Bitcoin’s value had increased in recent years. He is now seeking the permission of his city council to excavate the landfill in an attempt to find the drive. If the city allows him to look through the trash, he promises to offer a portion of the proceeds.
The city has not yet decided whether or not to allow Howells to dig through the trash, but he has until March to present his case. He says that he thinks he will be able to find the drive if it is made of aluminum. The material is not commonly used in hard drives but could be used to protect the drive from moisture. The search for the hard drive will cost Howells about $2,000, but he believes that it is worth the expense.
Some Cryptos, Like Ethereum, Have More Uses Than A Coin
It is important to note that some cryptocurrencies serve a purpose beyond just being coins. Payments and currency transfers are not the only uses of the Ethereum blockchain.
Also read: Crypto Currencies Technology
Ether, the native coin, can be used for transactions, but the underlying technology is much more than that. A smart contract can also be executed on Ethereum and can be used for supply chain management. The Ethereum network even creates coins for other cryptocurrencies.