There is no doubt that Bitcoin is one of the famous decentralized digital currencies in the market. Its popularity continues to grow daily as more and more users become curious about it. Even so, there are still some facts about the cryptocurrency that many people do not know, which Dan Schatt of Earnity discusses below.
A bug almost destroyed Bitcoin in 2010. There will only ever be a maximum of fewer than 21 million Bitcoins. More than 10 years ago, though, a bug coded by an unknown person in the Bitcoin blockchain produced more than 184 billion units of the cryptocurrency. Known as the “value overflow incident,” it nearly shut down the entire Bitcoin network. Fortunately, the bug was circumvented after a soft fork, which is what blockchain updates are called, was released to delete all the transactions and mining records after discovering the bug.
The Satoshi unit was coined to honor Bitcoin’s creator. The origin and evolution of the cryptocurrency have always been attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, but his true identity is still unknown, and the name is more likely just a pseudonym. Still, people have discovered ways to esteem Bitcoin’s presumed founder. One such method is naming the smallest unit of Bitcoin “Satoshi.” It is equivalent to 100 millionth of a Bitcoin.
You can get Bitcoin for free. Some sites or apps called Bitcoin faucets hand out tiny amounts of the cryptocurrency. According to Earnity’s Dan Schatt, Bitcoin faucets reward users for completing simple tasks. However, do not get your hopes up, as the amount distributed is only about one Satoshi. That was not always the case, though. Back in 2010, the first Bitcoin faucet was deployed. It sent a whopping 5 Bitcoin, equivalent to over $20,000 today, to each visitor in hopes of urging users to adopt cryptocurrency.