ABCDE Research Note: The Past, Present and Future of the Bitcoin Ecosystem

Preface
Bitcoin has been around for over 15 years and was originally positioned as a peer-to-peer payment system independent of any “ecosystem”. Due to the lack of Turing-complete smart contracts, discussions about Bitcoin’s scalability have been popular.

Over the years, we have witnessed debates and controversies about block sizes, hard forks, and lightning networks. Attempts to expand the Bitcoin ecosystem have never stopped.

On March 8, 2023, Domodata opened Bitcoin’s Pandora’s Box by introducing the BRC20 concept and deploying $ORDI. This led to a sudden flood of inscription assets on the Bitcoin network, reminiscent of the Ether ICO boom of 2017. Assets like $ORDI and $SATS experienced exponential growth, with market capitalizations exceeding $1 billion.The surge in the BRC 20 space has fueled continued innovation and growth across the Bitcoin ecosystem.

What is the future of the Bitcoin ecosystem after the intense market interest? How does Bitcoin evolve from a peer-to-peer payment system to digital gold?

As we approach the end of 2023 and the halving of Bitcoin approaches, we present this report to look back at Bitcoin’s past, assess its current state, and look forward to its promising future. Bitcoin Miner Asic 

This report is dedicated to all those who have contributed to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

“If you don’t believe me, or don’t understand, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.”

–Satoshi Nakamoto

I. The History of Bitcoin: The Meandering Path of Ecological Evolution
Bitcoin (BTC) Milestones 2018-2023: A Journey Through History

2008.11.01 Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

2009.01.03 Satoshi Nakamoto mines the first block in the history of Bitcoin, the Genesis block, on a regular server in Helsinki, Finland. In that block, he embedded a headline from the January 3, 2009, edition of The Times: “The Chancellor is on the brink of a second bailout for banks,” which both documented the timing of the block and subtly expressed a skeptical view of what was then the global financial crisis and the questioning of the banking system.

2009.01.12 Satoshi Nakamoto sends 10 bitcoins to developer Hal Finney, completing the first bitcoin transaction in history.

2010.05.21 Florida programmer Laszlo Hanyecz buys a pizza for 10,000 bitcoins, marking the first price of bitcoin at $0.0025 per bitcoin.

2010.07.17 Bitcoin exchange MT.GOX is founded in Tokyo.

2010.08.15 A Bitcoin vulnerability is discovered and exploited, generating more than 184 billion Bitcoins in a single transaction sent to two addresses. This illegal transaction was quickly discovered and corrected.

2010.12.16 Mining pool mining and the concept of bitcoin mining pools were introduced

2011.04.23 Satoshi Nakamoto sent his last email and then disappeared completely. The email reads, “I have moved on to other things, Gavin and others will take care of bitcoin.”

2012.09.27 The Bitcoin Foundation is founded

2012.11.28 The Bitcoin Reward is cut in half for the first time, from 50 Bitcoins generated every 10 minutes to 25. At the same time, the total number of bitcoins reaches half of the total supply of 21 million. https://www.hominers.com/

2012.12.04 Color Coin White Paper Released

2013.08.15 MasterCoin Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

2013.10.29 Canada Launches World’s First Bitcoin ATM Developed by U.S. Company Robocoin

2013.12.05 The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and five ministries issue a notice on risk prevention and control of Bitcoin, causing the global Bitcoin price to plummet by nearly 30%.

2015.01 Coinbase becomes the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in the United States.

2015.09 The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rules that Bitcoin is a commodity subject to the Commodity Exchange Act

2016.07.10 Bitcoin halved for the second time. Reward per block reduced from 25 bitcoins to 12.5 bitcoins

2016