Happy Birthday Bitcoin

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Happy Birthday Bitcoin!

Events

Gavin Lucas

It’s January 9, and those familiar with Bitcoin history know that it was on this day 14 years ago in 2009 that the first version of the Bitcoin protocol was released and the Bitcoin blockchain truly began.

What was the world’s first peer-to-peer electronic cash system has radically changed over the years, but it lives on today as Bitcoin SV (BSV). Let’s take a quick walk down memory lane to recap the main events.

The nature of Bitcoin is such that once version 0.1 was released, the core design was set in stone for the rest of its lifetime. – Satoshi Nakamoto

Wasn’t the Genesis Block constructed on January 3?

Yes, it was. Many refer to this as Bitcoin’s birthday as a result, but because of how the Genesis Block was hardcoded into the Bitcoin software (not mined) in the usual way, it’s more accurate to say Bitcoin’s birthday is January 9.

The first Bitcoin transaction, between Dr. Craig Wright and Hal Finney, would come later on January 12.

Bitcoin was not a cypherpunk project

In his early communications, Nakamoto was clear that nodes would eventually end up in data centers. He said in no uncertain terms that users running nodes at home was not the intended configuration at scale. He also told Mike Hearn it never hit a scaling ceiling and announced it on the cryptography mailing list rather than any of the many cypherpunk forums or mailing lists online at that time.

By looking back at these facts, we can ascertain that Nakamoto never intended Bitcoin to be a tool for criminals or a ‘decentralized’ system in the way that word is misunderstood today.

Who released Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was released by a pseudonymous computer programmer called Satoshi Nakamoto. Due to public doxxing and a litany of evidence across various court cases, we now know that Satoshi Nakamoto was Australian polymath Dr. Craig Wright. While many deny this, the evidence is undeniable to anyone with an open mind.

Did Dr. Wright create Bitcoin by himself? He credits his late friend, David Kleiman, and others, such as Hal Finney and Wei Dai, as having contributed in various ways, but he maintains that the system design was his and his alone. His Theory of Bitcoin series on YouTube explains the system in great detail, showcasing his knowledge of the system he created.

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By listening to Dr. Wright, we can learn his intentions for Bitcoin and how it went so horribly wrong in the years that followed.

Bitcoin got hijacked, but it’s back for good this time

While today is its 14th birthday, the original Bitcoin almost didn’t survive. Due to the misguided ignorance and deliberate maliciousness of BTC core developers, who deliberately kept the 1MB block size that was always supposed to be temporary, Bitcoin was changed into something it was never supposed to be, and core features and capabilities were stripped out.

Thankfully, Bitcoin is alive and well today as Bitcoin SV – Dr. Wright’s original design was restored. With the ability to process 100,000 transactions per second and an abundance of apps fueling micropayments on the blockchain, the original cash system he released is thriving. nChain and other companies are working on scaling Bitcoin to millions of transactions per second, and its capabilities are finally becoming more widely understood.

Clearly, Bitcoin’s toughest years are behind it, and its future looks brighter than ever. As we celebrate its 14th birthday, let’s reflect on how far it has come while realizing how far it still has to go.

Thanks for giving us the world’s first scalable peer-to-peer electronic cash system, Dr. Wright, and happy 14th birthday, Bitcoin!

Watch: How Bitcoin works as the base layer for other blockchains

YouTube video

New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.