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Cryptojacking is the act of exploiting a computer to mine cryptocurrencies, often through websites, [1] [2] [3] against the user's will or while the user is unaware. [4] One notable piece of software used for cryptojacking was Coinhive, which was used in over two-thirds of cryptojacks before its March 2019 shutdown. [5]
GPU mining is the use of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to "mine" proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. [1] Miners receive rewards for performing computationally intensive work, such as calculating hashes, that amend and verify transactions on an open and decentralized ledger.
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an unknown entity (person or persons). [5] Use of bitcoin as a currency began in 2009, [6] with the release of its open-source implementation.
Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released, and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction on 12 January 2009 (block 170). [ 25 ] [ 26 ] Other early supporters were Wei Dai , creator of bitcoin predecessor b-money , and Nick Szabo , creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold . [ 16 ]
The Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange was hacked in August 2016. [1] 119,756 bitcoins, worth about US$72 million at the time, were stolen.[1]In February 2022, the US government recovered and seized a portion of the stolen bitcoin, then worth US$3.6 billion, [2] by decrypting a file owned by Ilya Lichtenstein (born 1989) that contained addresses and private keys associated with the stolen funds. [3]
In 2011, Buterin began writing for a publication called Bitcoin Weekly after meeting a person on a bitcoin forum with the aim of earning bitcoin. [18] The owner offered five bitcoin (about $3.50 at the time) to anyone who would write an article for him. [19] Buterin wrote for the site until it shut down soon thereafter due to insufficient ...
The value of the recovered Bitcoins was only $2.3 million, because the trading price of Bitcoin had fallen since the date of the ransom payment. Through possession of the private key of the ransom account, the FBI was able to retrieve the Bitcoin, though it did not disclose how it obtained the private key. [56] [57]
El Salvador became the first country in the world to use bitcoin as legal tender, after having been adopted as such by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador in 2021. [1] It has been promoted by Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, who claimed that it would improve the economy by making banking easier for Salvadorans, and that it would encourage foreign investment.