On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper. What started as an idea of a group of cypherpunks is now 13 years later a recognized currency in El Salvador, appears on the balance sheets of companies such as Tesla, is used as a savings deposit and has a total market value of more than a trillion dollars.

Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system

In the whitepaper titled: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System , the still unknown inventor Satoshi Nakamoto explains in 9 pages how bitcoin and the blockchain technology work.

The white paper starts with a reflection on our current money system. The year of publication, 2008, was also the year of the financial crisis. This showed how fragile our economy and financial markets can be. According to Satoshi, the solution to central bank mismanagement was a decentralized money system based on cryptography instead of trust. Satoshi also explains in the white paper how bitcoin can offer a solution to the double-spending problem through blockchain technology .

Two months after the publication of the white paper, the Bitcoin network was launched and the first blocks were mined. From that moment on, the Bitcoin network grew into the most decentralized and secure network in the world, with an uptime of almost 99.99%. No network in the world can match that.

Hal Finney was the second person ever to be involved in bitcoin. He is even suspected of being Satoshi Nakamoto, although he has denied this several times.

You can read the original Bitcoin whitepaper in English on our website. You will find a translation in Dutch on the bitcoin.org website.

Thanks Satoshi!

In 13 years time, bitcoin has developed as a decentralized alternative to our current money system. For example, bitcoin is now legal tender in El Salvador, the second layer on the Bitcoin network is growing rapidly and Mastercard wants to make it possible for customers to pay with Bitcoin

Footage: The Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Budapest