January 3, 2019 marks Bitcoin’s 10th Birthday as Bitcoin’s first genesis block was mined 10 years ago. Crypto enthusiasts everywhere celebrated the day, and took time to reflect on this nascent asset class and share words of praise.
The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, was among these individuals celebrating as he took to Twitter to proclaim his love for Bitcoin in a tweetstorm consisting of 14 tweets.
Coinbase CEO Celebrates Bitcoin’s 10th Anniversary
Armstrong kicked off his celebration with this tweet:
1/ Today is a big day for Bitcoin, as it marks 10 years since the Genesis Block. Some people think I don’t like to talk about Bitcoin (😀), but today I have a few words to say
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 3, 2019
He shared how he first heard about Bitcoin and why it intrigued him so much, explaining that he first discovered Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper in 2010 after seeing a link on Hacker News.
Armstrong quickly became obsessed proclaiming:
I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the next 6 months and re-read it a number of times.
The fact that Bitcoin was another global decentralized protocol like the internet got Armstrong very excited that it could potentially create an open financial system for the world and increase economic freedom.
While Armstrong was head over heels for Bitcoin, he explained that his friends thought Bitcoin was kind of crazy.
However, he knew in his gut that it was important and decided to help spread adoption and make this technology easier to use, which then led him to the path he’s on today.
Bitcoin Led to Coinbase’s Creation
On top of his day job, Armstrong started working nights and weekends on various Bitcoin-related projects.
His first project was a Bitcoin wallet for Android, which helped him to learn about Bitcoin. However, it was still very buggy, so he started on a hosted wallet to better reach more people.
Armstrong spent around 3 months on this new project and developed a much deeper understanding of the Bitcoin protocol. He was then ready to step it up a notch and applied for funding to begin working full-time on the project.
Upon receiving the initial investment, Armstrong went full time and named his project BitBank, until his lawyers told him that the word “bank” should not be in the name. So, Armstrong brainstrormed ideas until one day he saw the word “coinbase” in the Bitcoin Wiki.
He then purchased the domain and Coinbase was created. Today, Coinbase is North America’s largest crypto exchange with millions of customers and support for numerous cryptocurrencies.
The exchange is constantly innovating and expanding their services to increase adoption, onboard new customers, and spread awareness. Armstrong’s initial goals are still being carried out today and his crypto exchange has become a massive success.
Armstrong Loves Bitcoin
The next series of tweets from Armstrong was about his admiration and love for Bitcoin.
His first tweet stated:
Bitcoin is one of the most important inventions of all time and has launched a global movement. It’s awesome to see an entire ecosystem spring up around it, but Bitcoin is my first love.
Armstrong explained that Bitcoin is the most popular digital asset on Coinbase among both newcomers and longtime hodlers alike. He sees steady growth in Bitcoin’s community and its technology, with the likes of the Lightning Network and more.
Armstrong hopes Bitcoin and its technology succeeds in the world, and tips his hat to anyone working to make it happen:
I believe we’re still at the beginning. The white paper signaled the start of a movement and the full promise of Bitcoin is still yet to be realized. Every day, I see more talented people coming into the space, and I’ve never had more conviction about crypto and what it holds for the future.
Armstrong’s tweetstorm was very well-received and, at the time of writing, has already gotten over 3,000 likes and almost 700 retweets on the first tweet of the thread.
What are you doing to support and spread adoption of Bitcoin? Let us know in the comment section below.
