From Konrad S Graf: “On the origins of Bitcoin”

“Bitcoin’s emergence as a medium of exchange was original, as with beads or metals in the past. It was not derivative, with monetary values taken over from tangible forerunners, as with the history of modern paper tickets and fiat digital account entries.

At the same time, Bitcoin is a novel case. Its scarcity has been achieved without tangibility. It was not picked up at the beach and carved, nor was it dug out of the side of a mountain and cleaned or melted. It was built out of the intricacies of new cryptographic and computer science innovations that were remixed and put together in a new and valuable way. Bitcoin is dug out the side of crypto- cyberspace mountain. The first hit of a pickaxe on this never-before-seen ore was heard on January 3, 2009.”