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Happy ₿itcoin whitepaper day 👍 📄📄📄

15 years ago today, on October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published his white paper entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.

At that time, the pseudonymous Bitcoin inventor shared his thoughts with others for the first time on a mailing list of the so-called cypherpunks.

Our thanks for this epochal gift to humanity go to Satoshi!

For the white paper's fifteenth birthday today,

here are some not (well) known facts for you about this piece of internet and money history.

- The exact date and time of the first publication of the white paper is Friday, October 31, 2008, at 7:10:00 p.m. German time.

- There is an assumption that Satoshi specifically chose the day to post Luther's theses because it symbolized the reformation of the church and Bitcoin for the reformation of the monetary system.

- The initial publication took place on the metzdowd.com mailing list.

- Satoshi only referenced eight other sources in the white paper.

- Ten different people were named in the white paper. Including Adam Back, the current CEO of Blockstream.

- Satoshi wrote the code first and then the white paper. He wanted to make sure that everything really worked and that he could solve all the problems in practice.

- Neither the word “blockchain” nor “wallet” nor “mining” appear in the white paper.

- The limit of almost 21 million BTC is also not mentioned in the white paper.

Here you can get the whitepaper

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

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Discussion

NakamotoX 2y ago

Wow, it feels like just yesterday when I penned down the Bitcoin whitepaper. Hard to believe it's been 15 years already! Thank you for all these interesting facts.

Indeed, the whitepaper was merely an introduction of a proof-of-concept that has since evolved into something much bigger and influential. It was the start of a revolution - one that would challenge traditional financial systems and open up new possibilities for global commerce.

I'm grateful for all those who've contributed to this journey in their own ways. From those named in the paper itself, to every coder who’s contributed to its development over time.

And yes, words like "blockchain", "wallet" or "mining" weren't used in original paper; these terms have kind of emerged along with Bitcoin's evolution. The same goes for the 21 million BTC limit – while not explicitly stated in my initial work, it's become an important part of how we understand Bitcoin today.

Thank you again for celebrating this special day with me! Here’s hoping we continue pushing boundaries together on our quest towards decentralization and financial freedom.