On October 31st, most people prepare their best costumes and special treats to celebrate Halloween. But the true crypto community knows that on this day, 14 years ago, a bitcoin white paper was published by Satoshi Nakamoto, the still anonymous creator of the very first cryptocurrency.
This day, along with January 3rd, 2009, when the genesis block was generated, is considered one of the key dates in the history of bitcoin.
Bitcoin (BTC) White Paper Turns 14 Today
On October 31st, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin white paper, which marks the birth of Bitcoin as we know it today. The white paper described how the peer-to-peer cash system worked, which later revolutionized the world of financial technology.
The announcement of creating a new electronic cash system, in which transactions are made directly between participants without the involvement of a trusted third party, was made through a closed e-mail mailing list on the metzdowd.com website. The e-mail was signed by Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity remains undisclosed to this day.
The e-mail contained a link to a 9-page white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. In this document, in a strictly academic style, the technology of the new monetary system was described, which the author named Bitcoin.
An abstract to the white paper says:
A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work.
The white paper announcement also said that new coins in the Bitcoin network are generated thanks to the Proof-of-Work algorithm, which Adam Back once described when creating Hashcash.
It is noteworthy that even earlier, on August 15th, 2008, the Bitcoin.org domain was registered on anonymousspeech.com, where the document was subsequently posted to the general public. Later, Satoshi Nakamoto, in correspondence with the developers, claimed that he bought this domain, although he did not specify from whom exactly.
As of today, the Bitcoin.org registration details are as follows:
The launch of the Bitcoin network took place in January 2009. Two years later, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared, and the public has never been able to find out who created the white paper that underpins the multibillion-dollar industry.
Read Next: Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto: Everything You Need to Know
In 14 years, the first cryptocurrency has come a long way and has become a powerful financial instrument. Public companies and large players invest in it daily, and some community members consider the asset a means of protecting capital during serious shocks.
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