History of Blockchain

Blockchain can be defined as the Chain of Blocks that contain some specific Information. Thus, a Blockchain is a ledger i.e file that constantly grows and keeps the record of all transactions permanently. This process takes place in a secure, chronological (Chronological means every transaction happens after the previous one) and immutable way. Each time when a block is completed in storing information, a new block is generated.

History of Blockchain

Let’s discuss the timeline of blockchain evolution:

1991: In 1991, researcher scientists named Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta introduce Blockchain Technology. These scientists wanted some Computational practical Solution for time-stamping the digital documents so that they couldn’t be tempered or misdated. So both scientists together developed a system with the help of Cryptography. In this System, the time-stamped documents are stored in a Chain of Blocks.

1992: After that in 1992, Merkle Trees formed a legal corporation by using a system developed by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta with some more features. Hence, Blockchain Technology became efficient to store several documents to be collected into one block. Merkle used a Secured Chain of Blocks that stores multiple data records in a sequence. However, this technology became unused when the Patent came into existence in 2004.

2000: In the year 2000, Stefan Konst published his theory of cryptographic secured chains, plus ideas for implementation.

2004: In the year 2004, Cryptographic activist Hal Finney introduced a system for digital cash known as “Reusable Proof of Work”. This step was the game-changer in the history of Blockchain and Cryptography. This System helps others to solve the Double Spending Problem by keeping the ownership of tokens registered on a trusted server.

2008: After that 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto conceptualized the concept of “Distributed Blockchain” in his white paper: ”A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”. He modified the model of Merkle Tree and created a system that is more secure and contains the secure history of data exchange. His System follows a peer-to-peer network of time stamping. His system became so useful that Cryptography became the backbone of Blockchain.

2009: After that, the evolution of Blockchain is steady and promising and became a need in various fields. In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto Releases Bitcoin White Paper. Blockchain technology is so secure that the following surprising news will give proof of that. A person named, James Howells was an IT worker in the United Kingdom, he starts mining bitcoins which are part of Blockchain in 2009 and stopped this in 2013. He spends $17,000 on it and after he stopped he sells the parts of his laptop on eBay and keep the drive with him so that when he needs to work again on bitcoin he will utilize it but while cleaning his house in 2013, he thrashed his drive with garbage and now his bitcoins cost nearly $127 million. This money now remains unclaimed in the Bitcoin system.

2014: The year 2014 is marked as the turning point for blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is separated from the currency and Blockchain 2.0 is born. Financial institutions and other industries started shifting their focus from digital currency to the development of blockchain technologies. 

2015: In 2015, Ethereum Frontier Network was launched, thus enabling developers to write smart contracts and dApps that could be deployed to a live network. In the same year, the Linux Foundation launched the Hyperledger project. 

2016: The word Blockchain is accepted as a single word instead of two different concepts as they were in Nakamoto’s original paper. The same year, a bug in the Ethereum DAO code was exploited resulting in a hard fork of the Ethereum Network. The Bitfinex bitcoin exchange was hacked resulting in 120,000 bitcoin being stolen.

2017: In the year 2017, Japan recognized Bitcoin as a legal currency. Block.one company introduced the EOS blockchain operating system which was designed to support commercial decentralized applications.

2018: Bitcoin turned 10 in the year 2018. The bitcoin value continued to drop, reaching the value of $3,800 at the end of the year. Online platforms like Google, Twitter, and Facebook banned the advertising of cryptocurrencies. 

2019: In the year 2019, Ethereum network transactions exceeded 1 million per day. Amazon announced the general availability of the Amazon Managed Blockchain service on AWS.

2020: Stablecoins were in demand as they promised more stability than traditional cryptocurrencies. The same year Ethereum launched Beacon Chain in preparation for Ethereum 2.0.

2022 : Ethereum has shifted from Proof of Work(PoW) to Proof of Stake(PoS) consensus mechanism. The original Ethereum mainnet merged with Beacon Chain which has Proof-of-Stake. Now it is existing as one chain. Ethereum’s energy consumption has reduced by ~99.95%.

Timeline	Blockchain	Bitcoin	Ethereum
1991	Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta Work on The First Blockchain	NA	NA
1992	Merkle Trees formed a legal corporation using a system developed by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta	NA	NA
2000	Stefan Konst published his theory of cryptographic secured chains	NA	NA
2004	Cryptographic activist Hal Finney introduced “Reusable Proof of Work”.	NA	NA
2008	Satoshi Nakamoto conceptualized the concept of “Distributed Blockchain” in his white paper: ”A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”.	NA	NA
2009		James Howells was an IT worker in the United Kingdom, who starts mining bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto Releases Bitcoin White Paper	NA
2014	Blockchain 2.0 is born.	NA	Ethereum Blockchain Is Funded By Crowdsale
2015	Linux Foundation launched the Hyperledger project.	NA	Ethereum Frontier Network was launched
2016	Blockchain is accepted as a single word instead of two different concepts	Bitfinex bitcoin exchange was hacked resulting in 120,000 bitcoin being stolen.	NA
2017	Block.one company introduced the EOS blockchain operating system.	Japan recognized Bitcoin as a legal currency.	NA
2018	Google, Twitter, and Facebook banned the advertising of cryptocurrencies.	Bitcoin turned 10 in the year 2018.	NA
2019	NA	NA	Ethereum network transactions exceeded 1 million per day.
2020	Stablecoins saw a rise.	NA	Ethereum launched Beacon Chain in preparation for Ethereum 2.0.
2022	NA	NA	Ethereum Merge. Ethereum’s consensus mechanism is now PoS.