The world’s leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC), has secured several headlines from the Guinness World Recordsincluding that of the oldest and first decentralized cryptocurrency on the market.
Bitcoin’s entry in the famous book as the first decentralized cryptocurrency states that it was “developed to meet the challenge of regulating a digital currency without the intervention of a centralized organization, or “third party trust”, to supervise the transactions”.
It is also mentioned that its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper in 2008, after completing the implementation of the concept and releasing an open-source client to the public in 2009.
Bitcoin was mentioned in 17 of the book’s entries in total. These include in particular:
- First blockchain: January 2009, launched by Nakamoto;
- The oldest existing cryptocurrency in the world: 13 years
- First transaction in bitcoins: the first transaction in BTC was made on January 12, 2009 between Nakamoto and an American developer Hal Finney for an amount of 10 BTC;
- First business transaction in bitcoins: On May 22, 2010, the software developer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas, day known today as “Bitcoin Pizza Day“;
- First country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender: September 2021, El Salvador;
- The highest valued cryptocurrency in the world: March 24, 2022;
- Biggest bitcoin fraud: 2012, Bitcoin Savings and Trust would have lost the equivalent of $5.6 million when it was closed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission ;
- The biggest hack in the crypto sector: February 2014, Mt. Gox ;
- First operation to seize cryptocurrencies: in April 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration American confiscated 11.02 BTC from Eric Hughesaccused of selling illegal drugs on the online marketplace Silk Road;
- Largest cryptocurrency seizure operation: February 2022, the american department of Justice (DOJ) seized $3.6 billion in cryptocurrencies from Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgansuspected of being associated with the hack of the Bitfinex crypto exchange in 2016 for the amount of 120 BTC;
- First crypto exchange on the market: March 2010, BitcoinMarket ;
- Biggest winning cryptocurrency jackpot in an online poker tournament: July 2019, for an amount of 104.23 BTC;
- first server Minecraft with a bitcoin economy: 2014, mined resources could be exchanged for fractions of bitcoins;
- First non-fungible token (NFT): May 2014, Quantuma short looping animation by American digital artist Kevin McCoythe only one to have been created via Bitcoin.
Two other entries appear in this search list, although they are not directly related to Bitcoin. They contain the phrase “Bitcoin-equivalent tokens” or a similar phrase: This is the highest valued NFT sports club, and the most expensive NFT artwork. Made by the artist Beeple and titled “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS“, the auction of the work had been organized by the house Christie’s.
Although widely praised for its inclusion of Bitcoin, observers have noted a number of errors such as the number of BTC in one of Nakamoto’s wallets, the white paper’s publication date, and some differentiations between validators and miners for proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains.
Moreover, earlier in October, the exchange Binance stated that, together with Talent Network, a recruitment agency based in Mexico, had earned a Guinness World Records title for organizing and hosting the largest cryptocurrency education session in the world. On October 7, 289 people attended this session at Blockchain Land Nuevo León, Mexico.