Happy Birthday Bitcoin!

Sing a long with me everybody!

Happy Birthday to youuu
Happy Birthday to youuu
Happy Birthday dear Bitcoin
Happy Birthday to you!

... How old are you now ...

Bitcoin is officially 9 years old today!

The first ever Bitcoin block, also known as the 'Genesis Block', was mined 9 years ago today on January 3, 2009. This fully loaded block of 50 Bitcoins was freshly created by Satoshi Nakamoto himself (most likely). At today's value of over $15,000 per coin, that is roughly $750,000!

The Genesis block contained a coded message within it's coinbase. The text read: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This was a reference to The Times article published on January 3, 2009 that discussed Chancellor Alistair Darling's plan to artificially pump billions into the economy.. It was a perfect time for Satoshi to launch the first ever successful crypto-currency in an attempt to decentralize the worlds financial system in a deflationary manner.

The Bitcoin whitepaper itself was released by Satoshi Nakamoto on October 31, 2008. It took a few months until the blockchain began... but we're all glad it did!