Cryptocurrencies have come a long way since the first paper on Bitcoin was published by anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, and the social media has been a major part of its evolution.
Evolution of Cryptocurrencies
The first major cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) was officially launched in 2008 and its founder Satoshi Nakamoto had only managed to cultivate the interest—in what was supposed to be a secure and out-of-the-box method of payment— of about 2000 subscribers through a traditional email list.
Cryptocurrencies were supposed to offer a revolutionary alternative to payments, an independent system without intermediaries or the government or leeching banks: but a system controlled by the owner of the cryptocurrencies themselves. Bitcoin was supposed to offer this, but not necessarily more, not commanding values of $19,000 per one coin—not many early faithfuls would have seen that coming.
Laszlo Hanyecz, the famous young man who purchased two large pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins (BTC) have most often been portrayed as an innocent ignorant owner of BTC who didn’t know Bitcoin could make him a millionaire in one day by wasting a fortune of $200million (going by BTC’s price in 2017) on two very delicious ‘large’ pizzas big enough to last him two days—as detailed by his order on BitcoinTalk.
Well, the truth is without people like Laszlo (who probably mined thousands of easy Bitcoins daily as at 2008), we would probably not have what we have to today. That, and social media—the way has been cleared, and there is only little that can stop the eventual mainstream adoption of virtual currencies and blockchain technology.
Laszlo Hanyecz, the famous young man who purchased two large pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins (BTC) have most often been portrayed as an innocent ignorant owner of BTC who didn’t know Bitcoin could make him a millionaire in one day by wasting a fortune of $200million (going by BTC’s price in 2017) on two very delicious ‘large’ pizzas big enough to last him two days—as detailed by his order on BitcoinTalk. Well, the truth is without people like Laszlo (who probably mined thousands of easy Bitcoins daily as at 2008), we would probably not have what we have to today. That, and social media—the way has been cleared, and there is only little that can stop the eventual mainstream adoption of virtual currencies and blockchain technology.
Social Media Influence Continues to Grow
The emergence of many social media platforms, even since 2008, is arguably the major catalyst behind the rapid exponential growth of the cryptocurrency market and consequently its industry. The reason is simple, as painted by Laszlo who unsurprisingly worked as a developer on Bitcoin with Nakamoto in the early days: the higher the demand, the higher the value and price.
Now after bringing cryptocurrencies into the regular attention space of the whole online world, the industry has transcended the early need for cryptocurrency awareness and is currently leveraging even these social platforms to influence the market, coin prices, and valuations. Major platforms like Twitter and Medium have become a major cog in the determination of market price directions and cryptocurrency startups and influencers continue to leverage these platforms more than ever to maintain relevance and drive prices.
It is no surprise that CEOs and Founders such as Justin Sun and McAfee, for example, have taken these platforms seriously and driving continued interesting their projects as the line between digital media and digital currencies begin to blur into one slowly.