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The Technical Aspects of Bitcoin.

Launching Bitcoin

The Bitcoin Journey

Launching Bitcoin

  • Let's start with a bit of history.
  • The Bitcoin protocol comes to life
  • The disappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto

Let's start with a bit of history.

October 31, 2008 marks the birth of the new financial technology that is Bitcoin. On this day, the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto presented his innovation to the world through an email sent to the mailing list of the cypherpunks, a community of cryptography enthusiasts dedicated to promoting privacy on the internet. This email contained a document called "White Paper", which presented how Bitcoin worked.
This initiative did not immediately generate enthusiasm, probably because of the previous failures in the attempts to create a digital cash systems. Nevertheless, this White Paper eventually became a reference for Bitcoin users and has been the subject of many debates in the Bitcoin ecosystem through the years.
On January 3, 2009, Satoshi officially inaugurated the Bitcoin network by creating the first block, also known as the "Genesis block", which marked the launch of the Bitcoin blockchain. This block contains a revealing message reflecting the mission of Bitcoin: "03/jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."
"We can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.” - Satoshi Nakamoto

The Bitcoin protocol comes to life

On January 9, 2009, Satoshi announced the release of Bitcoin 0.1.0 version. Shortly after, Hal Finney took hold of the software and joined the network, which marked the presence of two nodes and, therefore, two miners in the network. Finney even immortalized this step by tweeting, 'Running Bitcoin'. On January 12, 2009, the first Bitcoin transaction of 10 BTC was made between Satoshi and Hal Finney, and you can easily find it, if you go back to block 170.
Interest in Bitcoin grew rapidly, leading many people to test it, engage in debates, solve bugs, and reflect on its ethical, economic, and philosophical aspects. People were so captivated that Satoshi created the BitcoinTalk forum on November 22, 2009, in order to facilitate these types of communications. The forum quickly became the preferred place of discussion for Bitcoin users, so much so that famous memes and symbols associated with Bitcoin were born from it, such as the Bitcoin logo, the famous Hodl, or even Pizza day.
Did you know? On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made history by offering to buy two pizzas for 10.000 BTC: it was the first time that Bitcoin was used to purchase physical goods.

The disappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto

In 2010, as Bitcoin started attracting media attention, Satoshi decided to distance himself by announcing his departure in a forum post on December 12, 2010. On April 23, 2011, he made his last known private exchange via email, then disappeared, leaving his creation in the hands of the community.
“Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.” - Satoshi Nakamoto
Despite Satoshi's absence, Bitcoin continued to be developed: the history of Bitcoin is written every 10 minutes, and the protocol continues to function to this day as intended. Regardless of any fear, uncertainty, or doubt, Bitcoin continues to move forward, with a very strong online availability. In fact, according to this website, Bitcoin has been functional and running without massive issues for 99.988% of the time since it was created.
For some, Bitcoin is a defined as fungal entity like a mycelium, while others describe it as a black hole. Love it or hate it, Bitcoin continues to exist, with its constant rhythm of 10 minutes per block, like the heartbeat of a new monetary system.
To delve deeper into the writings of Satoshi Nakamoto, I recommend reading The Book of Satoshi by Phil Champagne, which brings together and contextualizes his main texts, as well as the ARTE documentary Le mystère Satoshi, which offers an accessible and well-documented investigation into his identity and legacy.
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve” - Satoshi Nakamoto
Now that we have some background, let's examine how a Bitcoin transaction works in general.
Quiz
Quiz1/5
When was Bitcoin first presented to the world?