Anniversary: ​​5 nice facts about the birthday whitepaper and bitcoin

On October 31, 2008 it was not only Halloween. Satoshi Nakamoto published his plan for bitcoin on that day. A very important day, because this eight-page white paper has set the world on its head. That is why we remember this day with five interesting facts.

Fact 1: The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is (still) unknown

Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym. The inventor of bitcoin uses this name to remain anonymous. To this day, we do not know who it is. It can be a man, a woman, or even a group of people.

There is still plenty of speculation as to who the mysterious creator is. Various names were reviewed, such as Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, Dorian Nakamoto and Craig Wright.

Fact 2: Not everyone was immediately enthusiastic

After almost eleven years you can safely call bitcoin a success. But that has not always been obvious. In the first instance, people were very critical. Is bitcoin scalable? Does bitcoin have intrinsic value? How do you ensure that everyone on the network is honest?

Correct questions that are asked to this day. Satoshi Nakamoto took all feedback to heart and also enthusiastically discussed it. If you have time left today, this thread is very interesting to read back.

Fact 3: Bitcoin and blockchain hardly in the white paper

In the white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto only mentions the word bitcoin twice. And that is in the title and the website. Satoshi Nakamoto is clearly not a marketer!

The word blockchain is also never mentioned. Satoshi Namakoto names the words block and chain separately, and refers to a “chain of hashes-based proof of work”. But yes, that sounds a little less tasty.

Fact 4: Bitcoin was already live after more than two months

Satoshi Nakamoto has probably worked hard on bitcoin before publishing the white paper. The bitcoin network was already live after just over two months. On January 3, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first transcision block.

This transaction block is also called the genesis block. You can still find this block on the blockchain. In this block you will only find the first 50 bitcoin that has been mined. Because at the time that Satoshi cranked up his computer, there was only one participant on the network: he himself.

Fact 5: There is plenty of donation to Satoshi

Speaking of which, the first 50 bitcoins have been sent to a receiving city which is probably from Satoshi Nakamoto. But if we look at the address, we will find more than 50 bitcoin.

Bitcoin users all over the world still send bitcoin to this address every day. As a kind of thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto. At this moment there are more than 68 bitcoin at the address. At the time of writing, good for 559,844 euros. You can still buy a nice broom cupboard from that in Amsterdam!

Do you want to read the bitcoin whitepaper yourself? View the Dutch version here.