31 October 2018 marks 10 years to the day that Bitcoin’s white paper entitled Bitcoin: A peer to peer electronic cash system was released by anonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto.
Publicly announced in 2008, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, allowing people to send and receive payments from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, eToro gave away £10,000 worth of Bitcoin via a unique ATM machine activated by song in London’s Finsbury Avenue Square. The ATM offered notes worth between £20 and £250 in Bitcoin to successful singers stepping up to its screen and creating sweet har-money.
How to use your Bitcoin note:
- On your bitcoin note you will see a QR code – known as a public key – and holographic strip
- Peel off the holographic strip to reveal another QR code, known as your private key
- Next, download a Bitcoin wallet – such as Samourai (for Android) or Mycelium (on iPhone)
- You will be prompted to create a seed (a backup phrase comprising a list of words) in the unlikely event you lose your phone and need to recover your wallet. Write down your seed phrase!
- Open the wallet, select ‘Sweep’ or ‘Cold Storage’ and scan the QR code under the holographic strip which will transfer Bitcoin from the note to your wallet
- You are ready to use it
You can view the balance of your bitcoin wallet or value of your note at any time. Simply scan the public key QR code using your wallet or a barcode scanner like blockchain.com/explorer then enter your address.
What can you do with it?
You can use your Bitcoin note to buy goods or services at various shops and websites, donate it to charity such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, trade it, or simply hang on to it as an investment.
If you have any questions or issues, contact btcbirthday@etoro.com.
Take a look at how bitcoin has evolved over the last 10 years, garnering support from entrepreneurs, technologists, and businesses along the way:
Read our beginner’s guide to blockchain.
Cryptocurrencies can fluctuate widely in prices and are therefore not appropriate for all investors. Trading cryptocurrencies is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework. Your capital is at risk.