On 31 October 2008, a person or group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper. In the nine-page technical document, the principles of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system are described, which subsequently sparked a genuine revolution in the world of financial technology.
To this day, it remains unknown who is behind the pseudonym of the creator of the first cryptocurrency.
Nakamoto summed up the defining characteristics of digital gold in the preface to his document:
“A fully peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another, without going through financial institutions. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main advantages are undermined if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to this problem based on a peer-to-peer network. It timestamps transactions and links them into a continuous chain of proof-of-work based on hashing.”
The Bitcoin network went live in January 2009. Two years later, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared, and the public never managed to ascertain who wrote the document at the heart of a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Over 15 years the first cryptocurrency has come a long way from ephemeral ‘fanfics’, 10,000 of which barely sufficed to buy two pizzas, to a powerful financial instrument with a market capitalization of $678 млрд.
Bitcoin is being invested in by public companies and governments. Some members of the community consider the asset as a store of value in periods of serious upheaval.
As of writing, about 93% of the total supply of digital gold has been mined, which is capped at 21 million BTC.
CoinGecko specialists presented Bitcoin prices on the anniversary of the white paper’s publication, starting from 2013:
Price of BTC on Bitcoin Whitepaper Day ?
2013: $204
2014: $337
2015: $312
2016: $699
2017: $6369
2018: $6332
2019: $9172
2020: $13,537
2021: $61,837
2022: $20,624
2023: $34,494— CoinGecko (@coingecko) October 31, 2023
For details on how mining of the first cryptocurrency works, why the reward is gradually decreasing, and whether it is harmful to the environment, read the educational material in ForkLog’s ‘Kryptorium’ section.