When it all started, back in the early days of 2009, the word “crypto” was understood as its current meaning only by a very small group of individuals. As years went by, the word got out about this revolutionary technology, and the group grew larger — however, it was still mostly made of private persons, not companies, corporations or enterprises. They started taking interest in this new digital currency a bit later.
Crypto came into existence just after the start of the 2008 financial crisis, and it was supposed to be a private solution that will offer an alternative for classical banking systems. It was intended to be a new way to transfer value from one individual to another, without the need to involve a third party like a bank in the process.
Banks were only present in a transaction as a voucher for trust: when two people did not trust each other, but they both trusted the bank. That was the old way of moving money around back then.
In a decentralized system, the bank is replaced by the blockchain. When two people that want to make a money transfer do not trust each other, they can both trust the blockchain due to its transparency and reliability. This renders banks useless.
This is a very simple explanation of why crypto was so easily adopted by a certain category of people. In addition to this trust issue, the novelty factor generated interest for another category of people: tech geeks and enthusiasts, online hipsters, and other future-thinkers. Generally speaking, crypto also caught the interest of people that spend many hours in front of a computer screen and want to do as much as possible from that place: work, socialize, have fun, make purchases, etc. This was even before the rise of social media and the Metaverse.
The move towards crypto use by public companies started with what is now known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”. On 22-May-2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, one of the early adopters of bitcoin, posted an unusual request on an internet forum dedicated to cryptocurrencies, saying that he is willing to offer 10.000 BTC to whoever will deliver him two large pizzas. Jeremy Sturdivant observed the posted order and fulfilled it by sending Laszlo two large pizzas from Papa John’s delivery service.
Let’s not get too upset and avoid imagining what we would do today with 10.000 bitcoins (estimated to be more than 400 million dollars). Instead, let’s keep our focus on the event itself. What was initially a “trendy thing” between people, now showed that it had the potential for commercial use.
Even if the actual transaction was still between two private individuals, somehow the restaurant that baked the pizzas was also connected to the transfer. This connection started to raise interest also from the side of public companies that noticed a commercial opportunity.
And after that day, the interest for the “business side” of crypto grew more and more, because there was a growth in demand for crypto-associated services from the general public. As we all know, where there is a demand, soon the offer will follow.
Here are some examples of these services requested by the general public: exchange one cryptocurrency with another one, buy crypto with fiat, sell crypto for fiat, loan crypto or even put your crypto to work for you.
Starting with 2011, more and more cryptocurrencies were created, with various names, properties and use cases — all of them were derived from the original bitcoin. There’s a short list of organizations that adopted this form of electronic money below:
- Tesla, the American electric car manufacturer, has offered, at one point in time, the possibility to buy its vehicles and services with Bitcoin payment. It was a short window of just a few months, but it was well appreciated by the public.
- Staples Center Arena has changed its name to Crypto.com Arena. For the next 20 years, the home of several local sports teams will have this new name, very clearly linked to the crypto world.
- Last year, another big event took place and set a new milestone in crypto history: the first bitcoin-linked ETF was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This action is proof that “big players” from the finance world have started to acknowledge the huge potential of crypto.
There are places in the world, especially in the United States of America, where taxes can be paid with bitcoin. This is currently valid only for businesses, but a similar initiative also for private citizens is fortunately in the making.
Speaking of good initiatives, the year 2021 has marked the start of big crypto conferences for corporations — this is a clear signal that the crypto world is becoming more and more interesting and valuable to people.
Now it’s the year 2022 and the crypto world and ecosystem have both grown consistently. They include today both individuals and enterprises because crypto can generate value for everyone.
Whether you have a business that could benefit from introducing crypto to its daily transactions or you, yourself, are interested in joining the crypto community, the best place to start your journey is IXFI, Your Friendly Crypto Exchange.
Article Written by Aurel Rusu — owner & founder of investeo.ro
Disclaimer: The content of this article is not investment advice and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to offer or recommendation of any investment product. It is for general purposes only and does not take into account your individual needs, investment objectives and specific financial and fiscal circumstances.
Although the material contained in this article was prepared based on information from public and private sources that IXFI believes to be reliable, no representation, warranty or undertaking, stated or implied, is given as to the accuracy of the information contained herein, and IXFI expressly disclaims any liability for the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this article.
Investment involves risk; any ideas or strategies discussed herein should therefore not be undertaken by any individual without prior consultation with a financial professional for the purpose of assessing whether the ideas or strategies that are discussed are suitable to you based on your own personal financial and fiscal objectives, needs and risk tolerance. IXFI expressly disclaims any liability or loss incurred by any person who acts on the information, ideas or strategies discussed herein.
