After Satoshi Nakamoto's departure, it became necessary to proceed without him. Fortunately, Bitcoin was an open project to which anyone could contribute, so its founder's disappearance was not fatal. As developer Jeff Garzik wrote in July 2010 (regarding the possibility of the founder's absence):

However, this disappearance was not without its challenges. The absence of Satoshi meant that there was no longer an authority from which direction could emanate. Coordination was necessary from the software development perspective and external communication. Members of the nascent Bitcoin community thus had to make many efforts to standardize these practices.

As we have recounted, Gavin Andresen took the reins of the project in December 2010 by creating the GitHub repository. On January 13, 2011, he asked for help on the forum by making a thread titled "Core Bitcoin Development Help Wanted". In the following months, many programmers played along and began solving problems. Among them were Jeff Garzik, Pieter Wuille (sipa), and Wladimir van Der Laan (wumpus, laanwj). New developers like Luke-Jr or Matt Corallo (BlueMatt) were also involved. Other individuals helped without directly contributing to the main software, like Mike Hearn (involved in the community since December), who made public a new software implementation called BitCoinJ in March 2011, to implement simplified payment verification (SPV) as described in the white paper.

The overall plan is to ensure the sustainable development of the project. This involves establishing a certain legitimacy with a broader audience. On May 19, Mike Hearn proposes that those involved in the project use their "real name," meaning their civil name, so that people are not suspicious. Gavin, Mike, and others change their pseudonym on the forum to display their full name. A list of the main developers is also published on the website's front page. By the end of May, the developers presented as such are Gavin Andresen, Martti Malmi, Amir Taaki, Pieter Wuille, Nils Schneider, and Jeff Garzik.

Coordination also improves. Besides the forum and the IRC channel #bitcoin-dev, a mailing list dedicated to development called "bitcoin-development" appears. It is set up on June 12 by Jeff Garzik. It allows for formal discussion of changes to be made to Bitcoin. Discussions regarding the project's roadmap are initiated in August. The list is initially hosted on SourceForge; it will be moved to the Linux Foundation site in June 2015, before finally migrating to Google Groups at the beginning of 2024.

On September 19, 2011, Amir Taaki inaugurates the system of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, modeled on the Python Enhancement Proposals (PEP) specific to the Python programming language. These BIPs are documents describing possible changes to the protocol or providing general information to the community. He describes the process through BIP-1, which Luke-Jr's BIP-2 will later replace. These proposals are initially hosted on the Bitcoin wiki.

Under the supervision of Gavin Andresen, several versions of the software were released over the months: v0.3.20 on March 5, v0.3.21 on April 27, v0.3.22 on June 5, v0.3.23 on June 13, and v0.3.24 on July 8. On September 23, 2011, a new major version, version 0.4, was officially released, symbolically indicating that the development succession was well underway.

Software development isn't the only thing that needs to be managed in Satoshi's absence. There are also general communication tools like the website, forum, and wiki. These are indeed the project's "shop windows," and how they are managed is very important.

As we mentioned, upon his departure, Satoshi handed over control of the site to Martti Malmi, which then included the forum (bitcoin.org/smf) and the wiki (bitcoin.org/wiki). However, Martti had little time to devote to this task. From spring 2010, he was occupied with an internship and then a full-time job, gradually stepping back.

Due to a lack of time, Martti was forced to gradually shut down his exchange platform, BitcoinExchange. It was offline during a server change in December 2010. In January, he decided not to reopen it. In early August, he sold the domain name for 250 bitcoins, equivalent to $2,365 at that time. The link would then redirect to Mt. Gox.

But it's primarily the website management that Martti needs to delegate. At the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, Bitcoin.org encountered some problems. On March 28, Martti posted an announcement on the forum asking for technical help and received several responses. The hosting was then made more robust, preventing the site from going offline with every massive influx of visitors.

Its appearance also changed. In December 2010, the website still looked like it had during the Satoshi era. Here is a snapshot from December 5:

Thus, a touch of color was added in early 2011:

In April, the website's layout changed due to a redesign organized by the community. Here is what it looked like then:

Finally, in September 2011, a new change was made by Nils Schneider. A new GitHub repository was created for the occasion. This design would last longer: it would not be changed until 2013. Here it is (note that Bitcoin-the-software is then described as "a community-driven open source project"):

Regarding the wiki, it was initially based on DokuWiki, a free engine integrated into the website. However, in December 2010, Mark Karpelès, a French developer living in Japan and using the pseudonym MagicalTux on the forum, created a new wiki at bitcoin.it. This wiki is based on the MediaWiki engine, which he finds more elegant and easier to use. The initial idea is not to replace the existing documentation, but, as Mark expresses on IRC, to develop "a less formal, more community-oriented wiki."

This new wiki appeals to Martti Malmi and Gavin Andresen, so they quickly consider making it the main wiki. Here is a snapshot taken on May 21:

A few days after the launch, the link titled "wiki" on the Bitcoin.org homepage points to bitcoin.it. The content is gradually transferred from the DokuWiki version. On January 31, Martti indicates on the forum that this is the new wiki.

The third element is the Bitcoin forum. Martti administers it, but he quickly recruits moderators. One is Theymos (real name Michael Marquardt), who gains additional responsibilities, notably co-managing the forum. The forum operates on the Simple Machines Forum engine and has not changed its appearance over the years. However, its URL has changed twice. First, on May 17, the forum is moved to forum.bitcoin.org. Then, on August 1, it is moved to a new top-level domain: bitcointalk.org. Over the years, it will be named BitcoinTalk. With the rise in value during the summer of 2011, Martti Malmi sold a significant portion of his bitcoins to buy himself a comfortable apartment near Helsinki. Then, he left his job to spend a few months in Japan. He abandoned the website and forum, leaving them in the hands of Theymos and a certain Cøbra, described by Martti as "someone trusted by Satoshi." The two men would co-manage both platforms in the years that followed.

The founder's departure and the need to cooperate affect not just the technical side but also the social aspect, which helps strengthen the community by creating links between members. That's why meet-ups and conferences are organized "in real life". These events also have the advantage of introducing Bitcoin to people more resistant to online content.

The first Bitcoin user meet-ups were initiated by Bruce Wagner, the New York-based host of a YouTube channel featuring televised debates on technical subjects, where he created a show called the Bitcoin Show in April 2011. The very first meeting took place in New York on December 11, 2010 (UTC). Subsequently, a meeting of the same type occurred in Washington D.C. A meetup was also organized on February 5, 2011, in Zurich, Switzerland by Mike Hearn, with Christian Decker and Stefan Thomas (justmoon) joining. February also marks the first filmed presentation of Bitcoin, conducted by Gavin Andresen on the 8th during an event organized in his hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts. Titled "Making Money," the presentation by the new lead maintainer of the project includes numerous language elements that would characterize the way cryptocurrency is presented in the following years.

Even though the first events occurred in the United States, the French community was not left behind. On May 25, to mark Gavin Andresen's visit to Paris, a lunch was organized in the La Défense district, attended by notable figures such as Lucien Grondin, David François, and Jon Matonis (who was also visiting).

Meeting at La Défense in Paris with Gavin Andresen, in a pink shirt (source: forum archive)

A month later, on June 15, the first public presentation of Bitcoin in French took place, again in Paris. It was conducted by Renaud Lifchitz (nono2357), a young cybersecurity expert who had discovered Bitcoin a year earlier. The presented content was of very high quality, and the audience turnout was so good that the room was packed.

Bitcoin presentation by Renaud Lifchitz on June 15, 2011 (source: forum archive)

Following this experience, the Parisian community organized a social gathering on July 11. This event brought together individuals like Pierre Noizat and Émilien Dutang. On the international front, the first collective conference on Bitcoin occurred from August 19 to 21 in New York. This meeting, organized by Bruce Wagner, brought together personalities such as Roger Ver, Jesse Powell, Jed McCaleb, Mark Karpelès, and Charlie Lee. Although Wagner promised three days of events, only four presentations occurred: his own and those by Gavin Andresen, Jeff Garzik, and Stefan Thomas.

Later in the year, in November, a European conference will take place in Prague. Notable speakers will include developer Amir Taaki, Swedish Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, and presenter Max Keiser. The following year, a similar event will be organized in London.

The year 2011 was also a year when media coverage significantly expanded. The WikiLeaks case and the article published in PC World in December greatly attracted attention to Bitcoin, so much so that all kinds of media picked up the topic. There was an "avalanche of press interest in [B]itcoin," as written by Gavin Andresen at the time.

Firstly, videos on the subject began to proliferate on YouTube. On March 22, the first high-quality video about Bitcoin made its appearance. This video, titled "What is Bitcoin?", was produced by Stefan Thomas (justmoon) thanks to crowdfunding from the community. It was published on the WeUseCoins portal dedicated to the education and popularization of cryptocurrency. Other independently produced introduction videos followed, such as that of howtovanish in April, that of Reason, or that of Rocketboom in June.

In April, the topic of digital currency was covered by major mainstream press outlets such as The Atlantic, Time Magazine, and Forbes. In May, the movement gained momentum, and Bitcoin was mentioned almost everywhere, notably in Wired UK, on Slate, on Gizmodo, and TechCrunch.

Gavin Andresen in Forbes in April 2011 (source: Forbes archive)

Radio was also used to discuss cryptocurrency. An episode of a Canadian CBC Radio show was dedicated to the topic of currency and Bitcoin on February 27. Bitcoin was also mentioned in several episodes of FreeTalkLive, a libertarian-oriented show in the United States. In particular, the topic was discussed more extensively on March 16, 2011, especially in the context of the rise of Silk Road. Finally, on May 24, Bitcoin was the subject of a short segment on National Public Radio in the United States.

Individual bloggers are also interested. This is the case for Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, who publishes several articles about the creation of Satoshi Nakamoto during May. He describes Bitcoin (and related systems like Ripple) as "the Napster of banking." His arguments are echoed by many people like the mutualist Kevin Carson in the United States or the liberal blogger h16 in France. On the 29th, Rick Falkvinge announced "putting all his savings into bitcoin"!

The popularization of Bitcoin means that its price increases significantly. While it had dropped to 20 cents in December 2010, it reached parity with the dollar on February 9, 2011. At that time, Hal Finney stated that community members are "really lucky to be at the beginning of a possibly explosive new phenomenon." He had a good instinct, as what happens next is lightning-fast.

Photograph published by jimbobway on the forum the day of parity with the dollar (source: Bitcointalk)

Indeed, the media frenzy of spring gradually creates an unprecedented speculative phenomenon. After stagnating at around $1 for several months, the price went up and reached $3 at the end of April. In May, it is at $8. Finally, on June 8, the price of bitcoin reached a historic high of $32 on Mt. Gox! This increase corresponds to a 160-fold increase in six months.

Average price of BTC between January 1 and June 30, 2011 (source: Bitbo.io)

Naturally, this speculative movement is reminiscent of a financial bubble, an overvaluation of a financial product compared to its fundamental value. In the case of a currency like Bitcoin, it's about a fleeting enthusiasm that results in a dizzying rise in price, followed by a sharp decline caused by the lack of conviction of new participants. This is how the price evolution is described as a "bubble" by a Reuters columnist on May 27, in one of the first "obituaries" of Bitcoin.

However, this speculative movement pushes the mainstream press to cover the topic, which it does not always do impartially. Thus, articles are published in the New York Times, in The Economist, in the British newspaper The Guardian, on the German news site Der Spiegel Online, in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, or the French daily Le Monde. This solidifies the media coverage of Bitcoin. It is now in the spotlight, and anyone who is even slightly curious has heard of it. The first era of Bitcoin, characterized by the presence of Satoshi and by the discretion of the project, is now over.

Thus, during the first half of 2011, the project could grow without the presence of its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. This moment marked the beginning of Bitcoin as a purely community-driven project and closed the period of Bitcoin's creation, which spanned four years, from 2007 to 2011. We can take several things away from this event.

Firstly, Bitcoin did not emerge out of nowhere. As digital cash operating in cyberspace, it is the result of decades of research and experimentation that led to its creation. It was preceded notably by David Chaum's eCash model, private digital currencies like e-gold, and the concepts of the cypherpunks. The presence of Hal Finney during the emergence of Bitcoin and the disappearance of Satoshi was thus very symbolic. As an individual who witnessed the early experiments of electronic money in the 90s and sought to create his model in 2004 with RPOW, he represented the continuity of the quest that precisely led to Bitcoin.

Secondly, Bitcoin was not built in a day. Even after the release of version 0.1 of the software in January 2009, the project was far from ready. Numerous vulnerabilities had to be corrected. One caused a major incident in August 2010, when the network was paralyzed for about fifteen hours, but the worst was avoided. Even after Satoshi's departure, the community had to continue to improve the software.

Thirdly, Bitcoin grew organically. It developed discreetly, gradually attracting people. It was a confidential project known only to enthusiasts and the curious for nearly a year and a half. It was only after the slashdotting of July 2010 that it began to explode. The speculative frenzy did not set in until 2011, when the price increased exponentially to $32.

Fourthly, Bitcoin was an altruistic creation. Satoshi Nakamoto offered Bitcoin to the world. He released the program under a free license. He sought neither fame, profit, nor power. He ensured the mining security of the network for more than a year, without asking for any compensation. Even though he accumulated more than a million bitcoins, he never spent them. He finally disappeared, mainly due to fears related to the attention created by the WikiLeaks case, leaving the project to rest on a community, without a single dominant figure.

In 2011, Satoshi disappeared, but Bitcoin survived. The cryptocurrency even definitively took off, both from a media and economic viewpoint. The machine was launched, and no one could stop it.