Bitcoin Is Still Magical

A look at crypto history… when this excellent — and still relevant — animated video explainer of how Bitcoin works made the rounds online, the total market value of all the bitcoins in the world was about $2 billion.

BTC video explainer screenshot

As of earlier today, the total estimated market value of all bitcoins out there is above $905 billion.

Also of note, since this explainer video was released on Vimeo by its creator back in 2012, Bitcoin’s network has undergone two block halvings — a once every roughly four years’ programmed event in which the mining reward is cut in half, or “halved.”

Back when the video was uploaded, miners earned 25 BTC for each successfully solved block. That reward amount was halved to 12.5 BTC about four years after the video, then was halved again to its current mining reward rate of 6.25 BTC per block. A new block is solved roughly every 10 minutes or so, meaning at the current reward rate only 900 new Bitcoin total are mined roughly every 24 hours.

Additionally, by November of this year, about 90 percent of all Bitcoin is expected to have been mined.

This video explains how Bitcoin works in 3 minutes. See more of our videos about cryptocurrencies here https://vimeo.com/album/4322275?ref=tw-share Directed, Designed and Animated by Duncan Elms - www.duncanelms.com www.anotherplace.tv Written and Voiced by Marc Fennell - www.marcfennell.com Sound Design by Sebastian Oliwa - www.oliwa.tv Updated in September 2014. Original video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEbCbp1vc9Y This is a self funded personal project, If you would like to make a Bitcoin donation for the video, please do so to 1P9wrpA2UQ2GEmMpt81Ch3Wt4poq5LhpiW. Or you can use the Vimeo tip jar. Bitcoin is constantly changing, therefore some of the stats may not be up to date. For more info please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin. We encourage you to share this video under the condition you embed it from this source and use the credits from above. Software used: After Effects and Cinema 4D

I’m retiring from journalism in a week’s time. If you’ve enjoyed my reporting and commentary over the years, here’s a BTC address, for the champagne & beer fund. 1AbST3a71p9CT7NfqXbn35VLJmHLDWNNg6

Got Bitcoin right, got Pizzagate right, got Trump sorta not being the real deal right — and rather than struggle in this legacy censorship environment, better to exit altogether. Better to leave this broken Internet with dignity, and some great stories to tell the next generation one day.

I could focus on all the negatives — and there have been many. But the last few years have been magical also. They failed to crush Bitcoin whey they needed to, and now it may change the whole world, given enough runway. Time will tell.