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Oct 31, 2008 The Bitcoin white paper
On October 31, 2008, someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto sent a nine-page paper to a cryptography mailing list. It described a way to send money online without a bank in the middle.
- Date
- Oct 31, 2008
- Length
- 9 pages
- Author
- Satoshi Nakamoto
What happened
The paper, titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, combined existing ideas (digital signatures, proof of work, a timestamped chain of transactions) into one design that solved the double-spending problem without a trusted third party.
It arrived in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, weeks after Lehman Brothers collapsed. The first reactions on the mailing list were a mix of curiosity and doubt, and the software did not exist yet. It would be released a few months later.
Why it mattered
Every Bitcoin year is counted from here. The paper is short, readable and still the best explanation of what Bitcoin is meant to do.