A Brief History of

OCTOBER Bitcoin Debuts , whose identity 31 remains unknown, releases white 2008 paper: “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System,” establishing Bitcoin and solving the “double-spending” problem. ------Satoshi Nakamoto Mines First Using a Central Processing Unit (CPU) JANUARY First block is called the "Genesis Block," in it Nakamoto included the 3 day's headline from the London 2009 Times that reads: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of ---se-con-d b-ailo-ut f-or b-ank-s."- --

JANUARY 12 First Bitcoin Transaction 2009 Takes Place Satoshi Nakamoto sends 50 bitcoins -to H-al -Finn-ey- in b-loc-k 17-0. -----

Code for Mining Bitcoin with OCTOBER Graphics Processing Units 2010 (GPUs) Released to the Public As mining becomes more difficult, GPU mining overtakes CPU mining ---as- the- fa-ster- op-tion-. ----

Bitcoin Pizza Day: Laszlo MAY Hanyecz Buys Two Pizzas in the First Known Purchase 22 Made with Bitcoin 2010 Hanyecz posts on a forum, "I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of -piz-zas-..lik-e m-ayb-e 2- larg-e o-nes-..."---

FEBRUARY Bitcoin Market Prices 2011 Across Major Exchanges Crosses Parity Threshold with the U.S. Dollar ----Feb-. 9t-h: 1- BT-C =- 1.1-0 U-SD--

gbbcouncil.org Field-Programmable Gate Array MAY (FPGA) Bitcoin Miner Released 20 FPGAs programmed to compute the SHA-256 algorithm to mine bitcoin. 2011 FPGAs are more efficient than GPUs as their hardware is specifically developed f-or m-in-ing -bitc-oin-. ------

NOVEMBER First Bitcoin Halving Event First 210,000 blocks are mined on 28 the Bitcoin , triggering 2012 the first reward halving. Miners now get 25 bitcoins per block ----min-ed -inst-ead- of -50.----

MARCH 2013

Bitcoin Market Capitalization R-ea-ch-es- 1 B-ill-ion- US-D-----

NOVEMBER 2013

Ethereum and Smart Contracts ---Es-tab-lis-he-d in- a- Wh-ite- P-ape-r

First Bitcoin Application- JANUARY Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) Ship to Public 19 First integrated circuits specifically 2013 designed to mine bitcoin. ASIC mining overtakes FPGA mining as the faster -min-ing- op-tion-. ------Bitoin Established in a White Paper FEBRUARY The Lightning Network is a payment 2015 protocol that operates on top of the blockchain to enable faster transactions and aims to solve ---Bi-tcoi-n's -sca-labi-lity- pro-ble-m. -- Bitcoin Improvement Proposal "Segregated Witness" Posted on GitHub A soft intended to fix a bug DECEMBER in the bitcoin code that permits 2015 transaction malleability. It also provides a solution to bitcoin’s scaling issue without increasing -bitc-oin-’s 1-MB- blo-ck -size-. -----

gbbcouncil.org The DAO, a Decentralized MAY Investor-Driven Venture 2016 Fund, Sets Crowd Funding Record Approximately $150 million USD ---w-ort-h of- Eth-er -at t-he -time-. --

A Smart Contract JUNE Vulnerability Allows a 2016 Hacker to Drain the DAO of 3.6m Ether Approximately $60 million USD -wo-rth -of E-the-r at- the- tim-e.-----

JULY Second Bitcoin Halving Event 420,000 blocks mined on the 9 Bitcoin blockchain, triggering the 2016 second reward halving. Miners now get 12.5 bitcoin per block mined ---ins-tea-d o-f 25-. ------

The Undergoes a Hard Fork, Splitting into AUGUST Two (BCH) differs from 1 Bitcoin Classic (BTC) in two key 2017 ways: It has an 8 MB block size and removes the option for SegWit Activated on SegWit implementation. Bitcoin Classic Network ------SegWit activation replaces bitcoin’s 1 MB block size limit with a block weight limit of 4 MB, allowing a AUGUST greater number of transactions to take place on each block. SegWit 23 also fixes a transaction malleability 2017 bug, making it possible to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Network implement second layer protocols, Undergoes a Hard Fork, such as the Lightning Network. Splitting into Two ------Blockchains – Bitcoin Adjustable Blocksize Cap (ABC) and Bitcoin NOVEMBER Satoshi’s Vision (SV) Disagreements over a planned 15 upgrade results in a split. Most 2017 notably, Bitcoin SV restores original Bitcoin code and increases -blo-ck s-ize -to 1-28-MB- fro-m 3-2M-B. ---

First Lightning Network MARCH Mainnet Beta Released This is the first release of the 15 Lighting Network with the option to 2018 run on Bitcoin’s mainnet. This release was intended for developers rather ---tha-n m-ain-stre-am- us-e. ----

gbbcouncil.org Estimated Date: MAY 11 2020

rd BITCOIN HALVING EVENT! 630,000 blocks will have been mined on the Bitcoin blockchain, triggering the third reward halving. Miners will now get 6.25 bitcoin per block mined instead of 12.5

Other Things To Know:

The supply of bitcoins is set at 21 million

Halving events occur every 210,000 blocks

Block rewards, which started at 50 BTC, halve every 210,000 blocks until reward eventually reaching 0 (estimated to happen in 2140)

Total bitcoins in circulation: ~18.36 million

Fourth bitcoin halving estimated to take place in 2024

This Timeline was Created by the Global Blockchain Business Council Based on Public Information.

This timeline is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of bitcoin, but rather an overview of some major events and milestones in advance of the third halving event.

Sources: https://gbbcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/A- Brief-History-of-Bitcoin-Sources.pdf