- Bitcoin celebrates its 13th birthday today – the day in 2009 that the Genesis block was mined
- Bitcoin has survived where many said it would fail and is stronger than ever
- However, there are still those who wish to do it harm
Bitcoin celebrates its 13th birthday today, with the protocol in its best shape yet but also more under attack than at any time in its life. Various governments, media outlets, and even powerful individuals are actively looking for ways to stunt Bitcoin’s growth in 2022 or even destroy it completely. On the anniversary of the day Bitcoin came into existence, we look at the people and collectives actively trying to make sure it doesn’t see its 14th.
Regulators
Talk of regulating Bitcoin went from idle chatter to a cacophonous roar in 2021, with governments all over the world squaring themselves against Bitcoin and its related entities as it rose to prominence in the first half of the year. Some took action against crypto exchanges and other transmitters, but the potential damage caused by the Infrastructure Bill represents a watershed of Bitcoin regulation.
More such action will undoubtedly come in 2022 as countries finally realize they can’t allow Bitcoin to take away from their sovereign currencies.
Mainstream Media
Bitcoin’s environmental impact was targeted like never before in 2021, and there’s no reason to think it won’t continue this year. Even if by some miracle mainstream media outlets did start to report on the positive steps being taken by Bitcoin mining companies and the fact that the statistics surrounding Bitcoin mining are far from cut and dried, they will simply move onto the next stick in the rack with which to beat Bitcoin.
Craig Wright
Craig Wright has gone from talking up Bitcoin to doing his best to beat it into submission. His legal action against Bitcoin developers based on an almost certainly fraudulent hack of billions of dollars’ worth of BTC and BSV, whether successful or not, is forcing them to abandon their work over the mere suggestion of such action. Allied to this is his desire to hard fork the Bitcoin blockchain to get back the coins he says were stolen from him.
Wright is full of near hatred for the Bitcoin protocol because he believes it was “hijacked” from him after he had created and launched it. Now, with Calvin Ayre’s money, he has an opportunity to do serious damage to it, which he will attempt to do through a variety of court cases in 2022.
Bitcoin supporters have to hope that defendants have the resources to fight and are not forced to carry out Wright’s orders on the basis of default judgments, as was the case with Cøbra.
Bitcoin Can Prevail
Bitcoin has faced plenty of challenges in the 13 years it has been around, and if survival means that it has to be seen as a rather more limited investment opportunity following the inevitable regulation then so be it. Bitcoin has always come through such challenges and there is every chance that 2022 will see it once again defy its critics to power through.
