Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese computer scientist, introduced Bitcoin to the public 14 years ago. He shared his infamous white paper. Satoshi’s invention, shared on metzdowd.com’s Cryptography Mailing List, not only solved a problem that had plagued computer scientists for years, but the invention also redefined how people look at money. Furthermore, as a side effect, Satoshi’s creation spawned a new digital economy with more than 13,000 cryptocurrency assets, worth just over $1 trillion today.
Celebrating the 14th Anniversary of Satoshi’s Bitcoin White Paper
Presently, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin supporters are celebrating the 14th anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper. Bitcoin’s mysterious creator first introduced the white paper on metzdowd.com’s Cryptography Mailing List on Oct. 31, 2008, at approximately 2:10 p.m. (ET). The date marks the first time Satoshi shared the inventor’s vision and the first sentence Bitcoin’s inventor said was:
I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.
In the message, Bitcoin’s creator said that the invention offers a number of different properties. Bitcoin’s benefits include the prevention of double spending and there is “no mint or other trusted parties,” Satoshi said. The inventor also highlighted how bitcoins are minted via a “Hashcash style proof-of-work.” Satoshi added:
In order to avoid double-spending the proof of work is also used for coin generation.
Satoshi then shared an abstract summary from the seminal Bitcoin whitepaper with a link back to bitcoin.org. Satoshi didn’t communicate again with the public until four days after he introduced the main properties. The abstract summary was then linked to bitcoin.org. These emails contained introductions to Bitcoin’s white paper. They also included a summary of the document and a link to its URL. Satoshi received 16 emails in total (some of which were replies). James A. Donald) Before the actual launch of the network on January 3, 2009, it was 2008
‘A Solution to the Byzantine Generals’ Problem’
On Dec. 10, 2008, Satoshi’s last email before the network launched was a welcome post to the Bitcoin mailing list. After the network launched on Jan. 3, 2009, Satoshi did not communicate via the mailing list until Jan. 8, 2009, in a post called “Bitcoin v0.1 released.” In that thread, Bitcoin’s inventor shared the very first codebase release of Bitcoin when the creator said:
The first Bitcoin release is announced. Bitcoin is a brand new electronic currency system. It uses peer-to-peer networks to stop double-spending. It’s completely decentralized with no server or central authority.
It is believed that Satoshi may have shared the codebase with others before the “Bitcoin v0.1 released” post was published. Common knowledge also suggests that Nakamoto was the one who helped to kickstart the network in its early days. It is assumed that Bitcoin’s inventor mined between 750,000 to 1.1 million BTC before leaving the community in 2010. Satoshi might have also mined the coin cache with one PC.
In addition to releasing the white paper on Halloween 2008, it was the first time academia and computer scientists were provided with a paper that solved the “Byzantine Generals’ Problem” or the “Byzantine Fault.” It also introduced the first academic paper that shows how triple-entry bookkeeping works, and Nakamoto knew it was a breakthrough invention when the inventor stated on November 13, 2008:
The proof-of-work chain is a solution to the Byzantine generals’ problem.
Shortly after the launch of the Bitcoin network, the idea for a new crypto asset network was born. 14 years later since the white paper was published, there’s now more than 13,000 crypto assets in the wild today, worth $1 trillion in USD value. Smart contracts, decentralized financing (defi), non-fungible tokens and smart contracts are all examples of other blockchain and crypto concepts. Out of the $1 trillion in value within the crypto economy, Satoshi’s invention represents nearly 38% of the aggregate today.
How do you feel about Satoshi Nakamoto’s publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper 14 years ago, on Halloween 2008? Comment below and let us know how you feel about the subject.
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