As we usher in a new year, it’s fitting to reflect on the significant strides that have been made in the world of Bitcoin over the past decade. To understand the magnitude of the progress, we need to revisit the humble beginnings of the network and its journey to the present day where it has become a force to be reckoned with.
A decade ago, the network was secured by hobbyists’ desktop CPUs which could have been easily overpowered by any large resourceful actor. Fast forward to 2020, and the network is now secured by billions of dollars of hardware consuming the collective electricity requirements of entire small nations. The securing of the network has transitioned from consumer hardware and hobbyists to specialized ASIC equipment and professionally managed data center operations, supplied by several billion-dollar companies.
The evolution in protocol development over the past decade is also noteworthy. In 2010, one could send Bitcoin to public keys (or IP addresses), timelock transactions, and use raw multisig which were massive and expensive. Today, the advancements are plenty and varied, including the use of P2SH to make sending money to more advanced scripts cheaper for the sending party, the ability to timelock an actual UTXO to an absolute blockheight or UNIX timestamp, and the construction of transactions that do not have malleable TXIDs for second layer protocols/chained transactions thanks to Segregated Witness.
The past decade has also seen Bitcoin transition from an obscure network overlooked by political figures and agencies, to a significant player commanding the attention of governments around the world. In 2010, Bitcoin was a blip on the radar, noticed only by the CIA who had a developer give a talk that led to the disappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto. Today, Bitcoin has spawned an entire market and industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Its impact has been felt globally, prompting governments to regularly hold meetings to discuss its macro-economic and geopolitical consequences and how to respond to them. Nations are now launching cryptocurrencies and sanctioning cryptocurrency addresses, demonstrating that Bitcoin has officially become a part of the global conversation.
The transformation over the past ten years has been nothing short of monumental. The development of new primitives, the shift in network security from hobbyists to professionals, and the increased political relevance of Bitcoin are all testaments to the impressive progress made. Looking ahead, the train of progress shows no signs of slowing down. Stay tuned for the next part of this retrospective series.
This article is a guest post by Shinobi. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
