by Jamie Redman
Since 1955 Guinness World Records (GWR) has published a reference book annually that covers world records from extreme natural events to human achievements. This year, Bitcoin has entered the fray as the world’s first and most valuable cryptocurrency network as GWR has added the subject to this year’s annual records.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s cryptocurrency and blockchain network, Bitcoin, has received a number of accolades over the years, and it’s been recognized by mainstream media sources and traditional mediums. For instance, in 2016, the word “bitcoin” was added to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, and two years later it entered the Scrabble lexicon. This year, Guinness World Records (GWR) has given recognition to Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention as bitcoin is considered the “first decentralized cryptocurrency.”
Guinness World Records has been formally recording records from various human achievements and extreme natural events for 67 years. Records show the first edition of Guinness World Records was the top book on the best-seller list in December 1955. The book still features a significant catalog and verification of world records tied to numerous acts and record-breaking achievements. The idea of creating a book of records originally derived from the managing director of Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver.
The summary of bitcoin featured in the latest Guinness World Records describes how the project’s white paper was published online in 2008, and the Guinness authors say Bitcoin was “developed as a solution to the challenge of regulating a digital currency without any centralized organization, or ‘trusted third party,’ to oversee transactions.” The GWR authors further detail that the network Satoshi Nakamoto created solved the double spending problem. The 2022 GWR record states:
The Bitcoin network [solves] the double spend problem with a “trustless” mechanism that does not require any third-party (e.g., banks) to verify transactions; and it achieves that with validators (i.e., miners, in PoW.) Miners are computers dedicated to the network to validate all transactions and prohibit any bad actors.
The category GWR researchers put Bitcoin in is “first,” as in the “First decentralized cryptocurrency.” The date recorded for the record-breaking “first” is January 3, 2009, the day Bitcoin launched. While the GWR addition is an achievement, some of the factoids provided by GWR researchers are wrong.
For example, it has recorded the wrong date of publication for the original Bitcoin white paper which was on October 31, 2008, and it erroneously cites Satoshi Nakamoto as having 600,000 BTC in a single wallet that “has been inactive for more than a decade.” This information is factually incorrect as Nakamoto’s stash does not reside in a single wallet and the BTC held by the inventor is estimated to be around 1 million BTC as opposed to the 600,000 BTC quoted by GWR.
What do you think about Bitcoin being added to the Guinness World Records list as the first decentralized cryptocurrency? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Editorial photo credit: 360b / Shutterstock.com
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