In the past fifteen years, Bitcoin has experienced the dark web, reality, hackers, users, regulation, and forks. The price of Bitcoin has gone from US$0.00025 to US$69,200. It has gained a group of believers, nurtured an industry, and been declared dead countless times. , today let’s summarize the real factors behind Bitcoin’s price fluctuations along the way.
比特币的价格曲线和暗网发展轨迹有惊人的重合，甚至在比特币大跌之际，是这个阴暗之地，撑起了比特币摇摇欲坠价格。如今，在比特币诞生近15年后，虽然依旧有不少加密货币和暗网黑市有千丝万缕的联系，但已经逐步摆脱了暗网这个黑色的生态，走到阳光之下。
In 2011, a website on the dark web called "Silk Road" was established, marking the emergence of the first black market on the dark web.
因为暗网的黑市并不支持明网中的支付方式，所以比特币的使用让暗网上的丝绸之路（Silk Road）快速崛起。同时，丝绸之路为刚出生的比特币提供了绝佳的孕育使用场景，促成了比特币与丝绸之路的相互成就，让2010年只有0.00025美元的比特币在2011年就暴涨到了31美元。有了匿名加密货币的加持，丝绸之路的发展非常顺利，因此从2011年到2013年9月，比特币的价格从31美元快速增长了到135美元。
2013年10月，第一代丝绸之路（Silk Road）被FBI下线之后，比特币价格在短短一周内就从135美元暴跌25.9%到了100美元上下。而在丝绸之路2.0于11月4日重新上线后，伴随新闻媒体的报道，比特币的价格又暴涨到了1200美元。
After Silk Road 1.0, the development of the darknet black market has gone through Silk Road 2.0 in 2014, Evolution and Agora in 2015, and AlphaBay from 2016 to 2017. Among them, no matter which change of the dark network, it will cause a linkage in the price of Bitcoin. Silk Road 2.0 was shut down in November 2014, and the subsequent development of the darknet also began to enter the one-year Warring States Period. In 2015, the dominance of the largest black market experienced three changes from Evolution to Agora to AlphaBay. .
The frequent changes in the black market leader are also reflected in the price of Bitcoin. From November 2014 to December 2015, the price of Bitcoin fell and remained at $350, fluctuating up and down. Even in August 2015, after Agora, the largest black market at the time, was closed due to security reasons, Bitcoin fell to $220.
Therefore, what we have to admit is that when the price of Bitcoin is turbulent and when countless players in the currency circle doubt their "Bitcoin faith", it is these black markets from dark places that support the price of Bitcoin.
From August 2015 to July 2017, the darknet black market experienced stability for more than two years, and AlphaBay became the largest black market since the emergence of the darknet. The stability of the black market and well-known media reports allowed the price of Bitcoin to rise rapidly from 2015 to 2017, rising to US$2,600 per coin.
同年在2017年7月，随着一场名为“刺刀”的行动，Alphabay的繁荣戛然而止。当时暗网第二名的黑市Hansa Market以及第三名的黑市RAMP都在后续行动中被强制关停，在这之前，这三个黑市市场占据了当时黑市总交易额的90%。受到Alphabay关停的消息影响，比特币7月份从2618美元暴跌至1900美元，但诡异的是7月比特币触底1800美元的低位后，不仅没有进入类似2015年的震荡期，反而在后续的半年时间内，一路冲上历史高位达到20000美元。这似乎预示着，游走在阴暗之地的比特币，终于开始走出暗网，走进大众所接受的阳光之下。
Let’s look back before 2017 to see what major events other than darknet factors affected the price of Bitcoin.
From May to June 2011, after the U.S. bond crisis emerged, Bitcoin reached its first value high of $14;
From February to March 2013, after the Cyprus crisis, Bitcoin rose to $264;
During the shutdown crisis in the United States from September to October 2013, the price of Bitcoin rose from US$100 to US$200.
On January 4, 2015, Bitstanp was hacked. After the incident, the price of Bitcoin plummeted from US$275 to US$178. On October 31 of the same year, Bitcoin was published on the front page of The Economist, and the price dropped from US$320 after the article was published. rose to $366,
On January 14, 2016, Mike Hearn declared that Bitcoin had failed and that he would "no longer be involved in Bitcoin development." Within 24 hours of the post, the price of Bitcoin plummeted from $431 to $360.
On August 2, 2016, Bitfinex was hacked, and the price of Bitcoin plummeted nearly 20% from $594 to $480 that day;
The proliferation of exchanges has contributed to the "mad cow". After 2014, the impact of non-darknet activities on the encryption industry is gradually increasing, and the impact of the darknet on the encryption industry is also infinitely shrinking until July 2017. In September, with the occurrence of Operation Sword, this impact began to change from quantitative to qualitative, turning the encryption industry into a "mad cow" away from the dark web.
The reason why the encryption industry is gradually moving away from the dark web is related to the emergence of cryptocurrency exchanges everywhere after 2013. Cryptocurrency exchanges before 2013 initially served only buyers and sellers on the dark web, and Bitcoin was rarely treated as an investment product.
Even if a small number of people are investing in Bitcoin, their purchase volume and investment amount are still not comparable to the amount circulating on the dark web. But in 2013, with the occurrence of the US shutdown crisis in September and October, and on November 20, China expressed the view that "people can freely participate in the Bitcoin market", which completely stimulated the already active encryption market.
Therefore, for the time being, it seems that darknet transactions without rules, laws and dark humanity will become the most loyal users of the Bitcoin blockchain. The limited liquidity supported by the darkness of human nature and the greed of wealth every day has become the biggest irony of centralization in the encryption industry. However, the encryption industry surrounding the darknet at the beginning, although its practitioners have expanded to Thousands, but like those diligent investors on the exchange, who would really care when faced with the greed of tens of thousands of times the myth of wealth?
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