Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that was invented by an unknown person or group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It was first released in 2009 and has since become the world's most widely-used cryptocurrency.

Today, Bitcoin has become a controversial subject amongst its users and financial institutions. Aside from massive losses to problematic price drops and almost criminal exchanges and furthering losses of trust and confidence in the currency, Bitcoin has a lot of ground to recapture if its going to make a serious comeback as far as price and future user adoption.

Let's talk about a few key events in the history of Bitcoin:

• 2009: The first version of the Bitcoin software is released and the first units of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency are issued.

• 2010: The first Bitcoin transaction occurs when a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. At the time, this was the equivalent of about $25.

• 2011: Bitcoin begins to gain mainstream attention and the value of a single Bitcoin increases to over $1.

• 2012: The first Bitcoin mining pool, known as GHash.io, is created.

• 2013: The value of a single Bitcoin reaches an all-time high of over $1,000.

• 2014: The collapse of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange due to a hack leads to a significant drop in the value of Bitcoin.

• 2016: The number of merchants accepting Bitcoin as payment for goods and services increases significantly.

• 2017: The value of a single Bitcoin reaches a new all-time high of over $19,000.

• 2018: The value of Bitcoin drops significantly due to a variety of factors, including increased regulation and the proliferation of other cryptocurrencies.

• 2019: The number of Bitcoin transactions per day reaches an all-time high, surpassing 400,000.

Today is Another Story 

Overall, the history of Bitcoin has been marked by both significant ups and downs in its value, consumer trust and regular use. Despite these fluctuations and setbacks, it remains the most widely-used and well-known cryptocurrency in the world.

The problem is, are crypto currencies like Bitcoin being safely represented to users on exchanges?

After the collapse of FTX and other major problems previously it its history, questions have arose on the subject of manipulation and if FTX is alone as far as future exchange collapses, and if there is evidence of fraudulent activities on other exchanges?

Forbes published an interesting article just recently about "Fake Trades" and price manipulation. I myself have written about recent research uncovered by individuals working on DBG and price and accumulative activities that look to purposefully dampen DGB's price and value. 

Since Blockchain (thanks to the birth of Bitcoin) works by providing a secure and transparent way to record transactions and other data, it has the potential to enable new forms of commerce and collaboration that can improve the efficiency and trustworthiness of research going into tracking the inner workings and behavior of many centralized exchanges.

This security of transparency, will be a key component in the legalities facing SBF and could also open an even larger door to further implications down the line. Time will tell in how all of this will play out, and what the future holds for other exchanges.

When an exchange engages in openly disclosing information, it helps prevent misunderstandings and avoids conflicts and possible legalities in the future. It can also help prevent unethical or illegal behavior, since all actions and decisions are out in the open and can be easily scrutinized. This makes research pretty straightforward and easy to take part in.

The problem then becomes platform size and how much attention you can generate in regards to getting answers to questions found in some researcher's data.

Researcher Johnny Law, a strong willed DGB and blockchain enthusiast turned analyst and self appointed DGB investigator has plenty of questions and concerns for a number of exchanges. His questions also resonate with other currencies uncovering questionable movements between exchanges and wallets held by exchanges.

Johnny is far from alone, as there are a multitude of researchers who are also getting in line for their opportunity to ask questions, but will they get any real answers?

Being the smallest voices asking the biggest questions is a task of endurance and stubbornness. Keep asking questions and maybe eventually you'll get a solid reply, or as seen in the Tweets embedded into this article, nothing at all. Which leaves one to ask, why the silence?

While the smaller voices are raising the alarm, the louder voices are making sure you won't pay attention. I hope, I sincerely hope people start paying attention to the smaller voices, because they're the ones doing the hardest job, confronting the elephant in the room.

Honestly, I believe the CEX industry doesn't have much time left on the face of our crypto planet and to be honest, if things start building up as far as "Big Brother" diving into the abyss of research and tracking movements and accumulative activities, prices and who did what and when, you can expect even more damages to come in regards to loss of trust and consumer confidence. We could also potentially see more exchanges fall by the wayside, especially if these unanswered questions start to gain traction in mainstream media.

Unfortunately for Bitcoin and other major currencies, should more exchanges fall, so will their value, collectively as a whole.

Everyone in Blockchain should be worried. Demand full transparency, not just selective transparency as with Elon's "Twitter Files"...but full transparency, and brace for the impact.

It won't be pretty.