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Ripple CTO David Schwartz recently joined a conversation on X that highlighted Bitcoin's value proposition.
Bitcoin enthusiast Rajat Soni had initiated a discussion on Bitcoin and at one point chipped in a statement about Bitcoin's value: "1 BTC = 1 BTC," a commonly used phrase in the cryptocurrency space, adding that, "If you look at your stack in terms of Bitcoin, there is no upside. If you own 1 Bitcoin, that Bitcoin will never be worth more in terms of Bitcoin," implying stability in the value of one Bitcoin token.
Soni added that this cannot be said of the stocks of various companies: "You can't say the same for stocks necause a company is not the same today as it was 50 years ago."
Schwartz responded, adding some fun to the discussion, "Bitcoin is not the same now as it was 50 years ago."
Bitcoin "50 years" ago?
Most likely the Ripple CTO's statement is a playful response, obviously meant to inject fun into the discussion, but it might connote deeper meanings. This remains significant as Schwartz, aside from being one of the original architects of XRP Ledger, had previously consulted for NSA and was privileged to watch the early stages of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin launched 16 years ago, on Jan. 3, 2009, as the BTC network came into existence, with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the genesis block of Bitcoin (block number 0), with its white paper released on Oct. 31, 2008.
The history of Bitcoin started with its invention and implementation by Satoshi Nakamoto, who integrated many existing ideas from the cryptography community.
Significant work on cryptography began exactly 50 years ago, in 1975, when IBM researchers created the Data Encryption Standard (DES), which is the first cryptosystem certified by the National Institute for Standards and Technology.
This laid the groundwork for cryptography, and on Oct. 31, 1996, 12 years before Bitcoin, the NSA published the white paper "How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash."
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team