10 Crypto facts and trivia

1 - THE INFAMOUS CRYPTO EVENT 

• On May 22, 2010, a man in Florida paid 10,000 bitcoins (BTC) for two pizzas.
• This is generally recognized as the first bitcoin transaction for a commercial purpose.
• At the time, 10,000 bitcoins were worth about $40, making one bitcoin worth a little less than half a cent.
• If you had that number of bitcoins in September 2022, you'd be a bitcoin millionaire.
• 10,000 bitcoins have a market value of more than $190 million.

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2 - THERE ARE MORE THAN 12K CRYPTO COINS IN EXISTENCE 

• As of September 2022, there are more than 12,000 digital currencies in existence.
• While you can’t buy them all on an exchange, they are out there, some of them requiring their own wallets.
• This includes many altcoins such as USD coin (USDC), XRP (XRP), solana (SOL), Binance USD (BUSD), and more.
• There are so many coins and tokens available because it’s relatively easy to create a new cryptocurrency and put it out there.
• But, as of September 2022, the top 20 virtual currencies account for about 87% of the crypto market cap.

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3 - THE AMOUNT OF BTC IS LIMITED 

• An interesting bitcoin fact is that when the protocol for the bitcoin network was set up, the limit was set at 21 million coins.
• When you help complete transactions on the bitcoin blockchain, you’re said to be bitcoin mining by using computing power through a process known as proof of work.
• You can receive a reward for mining bitcoin in the form of the digital currency itself.
• The reward halves every 210,000 blocks, which has worked out to about every four years.
• As of September 2022, the total number of circulating bitcoin is 19.15 million.
• This leaves a few million bitcoin yet to be mined, which is part of why mining remains a popular activity.

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4 - ONE MAN WANTS TO DIG A FIELD TO GET LOADED CRYPTO HARD DRIVE 

• In 2013, James Howells, who lives in Wales, U.K., threw out a hard drive with 7,500 bitcoins on it.
• When he realized how much the value of Bitcoin had shot up in recent years, he went looking for the drive.
• Now, he’s trying to get his local city council to allow him to excavate the landfill in an attempt to find the drive.
• He’s claiming to offer a portion of the proceeds if the city allows him to look through the trash.

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5 - SOME CRYPTO HAVE MORE USES THAN AS COIN 

• Some cryptocurrencies have uses beyond just being a coin.
• The ethereum blockchain technology can be used for more than just processing payments and sending currency.
• While you can use ether, the native coin of ethereum, for transactions, the underlying technology isn’t just about a medium of exchange.
• Ethereum is also used to execute smart contracts and can be used for supply chain management.
• Other cryptocurrencies even create their coins on the ethereum network.

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6 - ETH FEES ARE REFERERED TO AS GAS 

• When using the ethereum blockchain to complete transactions, you’re required to pay for gas.
• On the ethereum network, gas represents the computational effort used to complete the transaction.
• Using the network for apps or transactions, even if it’s converting another coin to ether, means you need to pay for gas.
• Depending on the transaction and traffic on the blockchain, gas fees can feel quite high in some cases.

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7 - CRYPTOKITTIES IS ONE OF THE FIRST BLOCKCHAIN GAMES 

• CryptoKitties, one of the first blockchain games, offers a way to breed one-of-a-kind digital cats.
• CryptoKitties aren’t a currency — instead, they’re part of the non-fungible token (NFT) world.
• Each kitty is unique and can’t be replicated.
• Each one has a unique value, similar to artwork.
• CryptoKitties is an example of a project built on the Ethereum blockchain.

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8 - DOGE COIN STARTED AS A JOKE (SHOCKER) 

• One of the hottest cryptocurrencies in 2021 was dogecoin (DOGE), as its market capitalization grew, in part due to support from Elon Musk. However, this cryptocurrency started out as a joke.
• The idea was that there were so many coins out there, just being introduced. So the creators of dogecoin invented the cryptocurrency around the image of the surprised-looking Shiba Inu dog. This was a popular meme in 2013 when dogecoin was introduced.

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9 - ELON TORSO-MAN MUSK HAS A LOT OF POWER IN CRYPTO PRICES 

• One person has contributed to huge swings in cryptocurrency prices in 2021 — Elon Musk. When he tweets or talks about cryptocurrencies, the market listens. Or at least his devoted followers do.
• Musk has impacted the price of bitcoin, dogecoin, and the cryptocurrency market as a whole, just by making pronouncements about what coins Tesla will accept for car purchases and making comments on Saturday Night Live.
• Despite Musk’s antics, many investors still find themselves researching how to invest in Tesla itself.

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10 - WE WILL NEVER KNOW WHO IS SATOSHI 

• Bitcoin is widely credited as being created by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym that isn't connected to a real person. However, the paper that talked about the protocol was released through a cryptography mailing list and the actual author remains anonymous.
• There is a lot of speculation about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, but no one knows who he is. No one even knows if they're one person or a group of people.