On paper, Satoshi Nakamoto is the richest man in the world
原文标题：《 比特币往事：美团王兴持有八年获利百倍 理论上中本聪已是世界首富 》
Originally written by Wu Yangang
"On paper, Satoshi Nakamoto is the richest man in the world."
Just two months ago, when the price of Bitcoin broke through $50,000, the founder of Meituan Wang Xing spoke at a dinner on Feb. 16. Satoshi Nakamoto is widely regarded as the father of Bitcoin, owning 1.12 million bitcoin coins.
Just two months after Wang's speech, the price of Bitcoin rose another 30 percent, to more than $64,000.
There is more to the Bitcoin story than that.On Wednesday, Coinbase, the largest digital currency exchange in the United States, closed its first day of trading at $65.4 billion, surpassing Citic Securities, China's largest brokerage.
Mr. Wang is a proponent of bitcoin. In late 2013, Mr. Wang bought bitcoin "to pay homage to this extraordinary imaginative creation with a real gesture."
That investment returned a hundredfold or so, even more than Meituan, one of China's most successful technology companies of the past decade.
Bitcoin is seen as a currency that can be used for saving wealth and payments, just like gold. Few of China's bitcoin backers are from the financial industry. Most of his supporters, like Wang, come from the Internet.
Xu Zhihong, a partner at BitYou.com, was one of the earliest Chinese investors. More than a decade ago, when he told brokerages to buy shares in Sina and BBB, he was greeted with skepticism by Americans -- and Chinese investors in Chinese stocks?
In 2013, Xu received an invitation to his friend's wedding. Instead of giving a big red envelope, he prepared a special gift this time -- one bitcoin, worth about $300.
"You want to keep this bitcoin so that when your child gets married, it can buy a house in Beijing." After sending out, Xu Zhihong does not rest assured, entrust a friend must hold for a long time.
Over the past decade, the price of friendship has held steady while the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed. No one gives their friends bitcoin as a wedding gift anymore.
"Bitcoin will quickly (within 1.5-2 years) approach 80% of the market value of gold, which is $400,000 per coin." "Predicts Kuaidi founder Chen Weixing. After the merger with Didi, Chen worked on blockchain and founded the ride-hailing chain. As Bitcoin has risen, such predictions have become more frequent.
Put all the world's gold together and you would have a cube 21 meters on each side with a market value of about $11 trillion. Bitcoin is known as digital gold, and its total market value is 10 percent that of gold.
What is it that has enabled Bitcoin to rise from an unheard of token to an unparalleled and epic success?
Ross Ulbricht: The man who saved Bitcoin is in jail
Compared to what Bitcoin is doing today, its birth is small fry.
On January 3, 2009, Nakamoto in a small server located in Helsinki, Finland, personally created the first block - that is, the creation of bitcoin block, and won the system automatically generated the first 50 bitcoin reward, the first bitcoin came out.
For a long time, the world ignored this new invention -- what was it for? Nakamoto is recognized as a genius, he did not answer. In December 2010, Mr. Nakamoto left his last message online and never showed up.
For the first year or two of its existence, bitcoin has been trading at $0.10 a coin. That's when the famous story of 10,000 Bitcoins for pizza happened. Bitcoin has a genius design, but a useless one.
Satoshi Nakamoto, like Shakespeare, wrote a perfect play, but no one can play it. Until Bitcoin meets another genius.
Ross Ulbricht, born in 1984, has been involved in drug trafficking since college. The U.S. government has strict control over drugs, and Ross has never been able to make and sell drugs. It wasn't until 2010 that Ross heard about the existence of Bitcoin from his customers that the turning point came.
Ross Ulbricht
At the heart of the government's crackdown on illegal activity is the regulation of money - and at the heart of it is the banking system, which is firmly in government hands. Bitcoin, or Bitcoin, is a payment device that is disconnected from the banking system -- and until now, banks and Bitcoin have gone their separate ways.
In January 2011, at the age of 26, Ross launched a "deep web", colloquially known as the dark web. Ross named the site Silk Road, implying a place where goods were traded.
The Silk Road, the best-known and most notorious "dark web" in history, did not trade tea, silk or porcelain. The site deals mainly in drugs, sex slavery, child pornography, personal killers, arms deals, and false identities.
All the illegal trade was concentrated on the "Silk Road". In the end, Ross himself got caught up in it. He once paid a hefty deposit to hire a killer to kill a Canadian user who had hacked into the seller's computer and threatened him with blackmail.
With the rise of the Silk Road, Bitcoin has finally found its first application -- as a payment tool for criminal transactions. According to the data, Silk Road used to have more than 9.5 million Bitcoins in circulation, accounting for 80 percent of all Bitcoin in circulation at that time.
Screenshot of the Silk Road website
Ross was arrested at a public library in San Francisco in August 2013. He was sentenced by a court in 2015 to life in prison without parole.
The demand for black is also the demand. Just like a fool's consensus, is also a consensus. Fueled by criminal transactions, Bitcoin saw its first surge, reaching $31 in June 2011. Within two months of Ross's arrest, bitcoin had risen to $1,100 a coin.
Ultimately, Ross Ulbricht is one of the most important figures in the history of Bitcoin. Ending Bitcoin's history as a toy and giving it a real-world meaning -- to serve crime -- just as it is about to be ignored by the world.
"Criminals are the ones who embrace new technology the most." Currency excellent partner Xu Zhihong summary. But in a long struggle, police departments have mastered the technology of tracing bitcoin. More black transactions have shifted to digital currencies such as Monero, which are harder to track. Bitcoin has started a years-long bear journey.
The great bull market has spread the seeds of Bitcoin around the world. Across the ocean in China, a Bitcoin exchange called OKCoin has been quietly launched. The exchange, known as the Huangpu Military Academy of China Coin Circle, was founded by Xu Mingxing. Like Mr. Wang, Mr. Xu comes from the Internet industry, having previously served as the CTO of Douding.
Xu stars do the same thing, there are a large number of people. They are working on another fundamental need -- how to make bitcoin more accessible to ordinary investors.
Digital currency exchange -- the greatest bridge
Between the worlds of digital money and fiat money, there is a huge technological gap, like a huge river. Before exchanges, investors had to swim across the river naked and take all kinds of trading risks. This is bound to be a game for the few.
Miners need money to pay their electricity bills, mining companies need to develop more advanced machines, and development teams need to be maintained -- Bitcoin needs more support from the fiat world, and it's a matter of life and death.
After Bitcoin's first big bull market, digital currency exchanges began to thrive. OkCoin, Huobin, Binance, Coinbase, BitFlyer, BitMEx, Bitfinex and other exchanges began to rise.
Digital currency exchanges provide a bridge that allows investors to buy bitcoin as easily as opening a stock account. For a long time, digital currency exchanges were even the only place for the masses to buy bitcoin.
Whatever bitcoin's subsequent rise and fall, wealth from the fiat world has continued to flow into the digital currency world, propping up bitcoin's trading prices and allowing innovations in the digital currency space to continue.
Poster of an exchange. The "marketing level" of the coin circle should be first-class
Since its birth, exchanges have been exploiting the fiat currency world in a variety of ways
Most of the exchanges' customers are investors with a taste for new, risky investments. But for Bitcoin to truly reach the real world and the masses, much more financial innovation is needed.
Bitcoin's ATMs, which make it easier for investors to buy, are one of the main directions of innovation in the digital currency world
Bitcoins rejected by the agency
The word "faith" is often used by Bitcoin's supporters. Only those investors with "faith" can walk through the brambles and get rich by owning bitcoin across the bull market.
The people who set up exchanges to make it easier for investors to buy bitcoin are more like human preachers. Do they believe in digital currency?
That may be hard to answer, and the founders of the exchange may not have needed it-because trading is a very profitable business. Thanks to the exchange's efforts, the goal of getting bitcoin into the accounts of individuals and ordinary families was quickly realized.
There are two bigger peaks in front of Bitcoin -- how to get into the portfolios of mainstream financial institutions and how to get into the balance sheets of public companies -- and that's very difficult.
Bitcoin is like Sun Wukong, which sprang out of a stone. It is different from all asset classes and is incompatible with modern financial institutions.Bitcoin already has the same market value as silver, but you can't keep it in your bank account.
Over the past decade, Bitcoin has been the most invested category in the world -- rising from $0.10 to $64,000. Regrettably, such an investment category was ignored for a decade, and almost all investment institutions around the world missed it.
"At the moment, most financial institutions and banks are not allowed to buy bitcoin. It will take a long time for consensus to develop further." GSJ's Zhu Xiaohu told Tencent Technology that he has invested in a series of cutting-edge technology companies, including Didi, Ofo and Inke. Where there is a tuyere, he is there.
"The biggest limitation for institutions to participate in Bitcoin investment is still the financial regulations of each country." Fire Chain Technology CEO Yuan Yuming said. In 2018, or Industrial Securities TMT chief analyst Yuan Yuming announced that job-hopping, joining Huobi China, once caused a sensation in the circle.
When asked to explain the new wave of activity, almost all those involved in the currency circle gave the same answer: the United States.
"The epicentre of blockchain innovation has always been in the United States, and the innovation of blockchain in the last two years, the innovation of Ethereum, has basically had nothing to do with China." Coin premium founder Chen Yong believes that before entering the coin circle business, he is senior vice president of cheetah mobile. "It's still not going to change the bedrock of U.S. financial innovation."
Finance and technology are two of the cornerstones of American prosperity, and while Wall Street and Silicon Valley have not been on the sidelines of Bitcoin's spectacular rise, they have been deeply involved.
Wall Street and Bitcoin
A US asset manager, known in the industry as Grayscale Fund, is pushing the boundaries between the digital currency world and traditional finance.
In the world of Bitcoin, holding 1,000 bitcoins is called a giant whale, and there are about 2,000 whales around the world.
Of all the whales, Grayscale is easily one of the biggest -- it manages more than 650,000 Bitcoins. At current prices, Grayscale has assets of at least $38.5bn, making it one of the world's most successful asset managers.
Barry Hilbert, founder of Grayscale
Through the innovation of financial products, Grayscale Fund has for the first time reduced the difficulty of buying Bitcoin assets to that of buying US stocks. As long as you have a US stock account, you can trade GBTC just like buying and selling stocks. You don't need to consider the complicated cash inflow process or worry about the platform thunder.
For a long time, the Grayscale fund has been growing at 2,000 Bitcoins a day, expanding rapidly. Its innovation is simple: a trust that sets up crypto assets holds bitcoin, and investors hold a share of the trust, which can be traded in the secondary market.
"There are currently two main ways for institutions to participate directly in bitcoin investment in the United States. One is to purchase shares through institution-operated trust fund products (ETPs) such as Grayscale and 21Shares, and the other is to purchase shares directly through compliance trading platforms such as Coinbase." Yuan Yuming introduced.
In the U.S., trusts typically charge 0.3-1.5% a year for management. And grayscale products annual management fee standard 2%-2.5%. Grayscale funds can withdraw tens of thousands of Bitcoins a year in management fees even if they do nothing.
Grayscale is typical of any Bitcoin startup. Make it easier for more investors to hold bitcoins -- and reap huge returns. The profit-seeking behavior of these financial institutions has brought a steady stream of investors to Bitcoin, driving the currency's continued rise.
"Bitcoin is an" extremely inefficient way "to conduct transactions, and processing these exchanges consumes a staggering amount of energy." U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has lambasted Bitcoin, saying that "Bitcoin is often used for illicit financing, and investors should beware."
Despite Ms Yellen's dislike of bitcoin, that hasn't stopped US financial innovation in the currency at all. In September 2017, China's central bank joined seven ministries and commissions to ban ICOs altogether. But three months later, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched bitcoin futures.
Now the world's top asset managers, such as Bridgewater and BlackRock, are itching. A financial institution can use your money to buy any asset as long as it receives a management fee.
Silicon Valley and Bitcoin
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, a well-known US tech leader, is also an even stronger advocate of cryptocurrencies than Musk, who believes they will become the world's "single currency".
Twitter, while well known, is not Dorsey's most successful business venture. Mr Dorsey's Square, a pioneer in bitcoin innovation, is now worth $120bn, twice the size of Twitter.If Grayscale Fund is like a water pump, it will pump water from fiat money world to Bitcoin world. Silicon Valley tech companies have invented new tools to eat away at bitcoin inventory like ants moving.
In January 2018, Square's Cash App introduced a new feature that allows users to buy bitcoin. "A total of 3 million people will buy bitcoin through the Cash App in 2020, and 1 million more will be purchased in January 2021." Data released by Square's CFO shows how Bitcoin is finding its way into the wallets of ordinary people.
Under pressure from competitors, PayPal, the world's most major online payment tool, announced in October 2020 that it would support the purchase of Bitcoin, Litecoin and other digital currencies.
On the one hand, the Federal Reserve has provided the endless flood, while America's traditional financial and tech firms have acted as conduits for fiat and digital money -- making buying bitcoin as easy as turning on the tap in your home.
There are so many new investors that there aren't enough bitcoin
One bitcoin costs $60,000, which is more than 400,000 yuan. The vast majority of ordinary people in the world can no longer afford to buy one bitcoin on their annual income.
But that hasn't stopped demand from outstripping supply. According to Nakamoto's setting, there are a total of 21 million Bitcoins, of which about 18.6 million have been dug out. "Due to the low prices in the early days, there are a lot of lost Bitcoins, an estimated 3-4 million of which have never been recovered." "Cryptocurrency analyst Xu Qing 'an said.
Under the rules, 328,500 new Bitcoins are now mined each year. Every four years, the output of bitcoin mining falls by half and mining is twice as difficult.
"Gold inflation is only 1.7 percent, and bitcoin inflation is about the same. As bitcoin is halved, bitcoin inflation is going to get lower and lower." Mr. Xu thinks it will get harder to buy bitcoin.
Withdrawal customers are increasing, and the stock of bitcoin on exchanges is becoming less and less
The number of Bitcoins held on exchanges has fallen by 800,000 over the past year to 2.2 million from 3 million, according to the study. The number of Bitcoins deposited on exchanges continues to decline.
If the number of bitcoins on exchanges continues to shrink, it will become harder to buy. And on the sidelines, an even bigger crop of crocodiles is gobbling up bitcoin.
In February 2021, Tesla announced that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and that it could use bitcoin to buy Tesla cars. The price of Bitcoin jumped 10% in an instant.
Musk also announced that customers will be able to buy Tesla cars with bitcoin, which Tesla will not sell.
Tesla isn't the world's first tech company to make a splash, with Square investing about $50 million to buy 4,709 BTCs in 2020. Square's experiment put bitcoin on the balance sheet of a US-listed company for the first time and was accepted by accounting standards.
Another direct example is MicroStrategy, which has been buying more than 70,000 Bitcoins since August 2020 by holding cash and raising funds through issuing convertible bonds, at a cost of more than $1.1 billion. Chinese company Meitu, which has also bought $100 million in bitcoin and Ethereum, is one of the few companies in China to hold bitcoin publicly.
The limited number of bitcoins and increasing demand are creating a growing mismatch between supply and demand.
Where is the sky for bitcoin?
At the beginning of the article, the friend who had received bitcoin as a wedding gift eventually handed over his chips after the currency had risen tenfold. The story of bitcoin's rise is repeated by new investors.
Grayscale, Square, Binance, Huobi, Coinbase -- all the entrepreneurs who have broadened the fiat coin world and connected to the digital Huobi world -- have been richly rewarded.
New financial innovations never stop for a moment. The world's first Bitcoin ETF has launched in Canada, with 17,000 Bitcoins, and more than 10 ETFs in the pipeline.
Can you still buy bitcoin?
"It's worth considering as an asset allocation that you can buy a small portion of your assets into bitcoin." Jin Shajiang creates Zhu Xiaohu to express cautiously.
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