Hey there. It’s Brady.
Media coverage of crypto often revolves around sky-high prices, roller-coaster drops, and major hacks where many millions of dollars are siphoned off. But the story of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, starts in silicon. It’s mined, there’s complex math involved, and we’re not getting into that.
The first Bitcoin was generated in January 2009. When the concept behind this decentralized asset only existed in the minds of a few dozen, a few hundred, a few thousand people, it was mined on personal computers.
Now, things are drastically different. Mining farms outfitted with specialized hardware are often the size of multiple football fields, and a single company may operate numerous operations scattered in different parts of the world. All of these entities compete to mine a block every ten minutes or so, and each block contains 6.25 Bitcoins as the reward. That’s all to say it’s an extremely competitive, highly expensive endeavor.
In the next few months, a series of mining companies will go public in the United States, each merging with a blank check company to gain its ticker symbol. It’s a situation that blends the pursuit of a decentralized asset with traditional finance. There’s plenty to unpack there.
Stephanie looked at the reasons behind this development. You can read her article here.
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