Bitcoin's price surges tenfold from $0.008 to $0.08 over just five days after Slashdot, one of the internet's most popular tech news sites, publishes a story about Bitcoin version 0.3. The flood of traffic from tech-savvy Slashdot readers overwhelmed the nascent Bitcoin community and brought a wave of new users to the network. It was Bitcoin's first taste of viral media attention and demonstrated how even a single story on a major platform could move the market. The "Slashdot effect" proved that there was real demand for a decentralized digital currency.
Slashdot: Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3