World on the brink, 16 years since Bitcoin’s Genesis Block

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Sixteen years ago today, something truly groundbreaking happened—and no one noticed. Block #0, otherwhise known as “Genesis Block” of the Bitcoin network was created. At the same time, the phrase “on the brink” became an immutable part of Bitcoin’s history, and somehow, it still feels appropriate in 2025.

It’s remarkable to imagine how low-key this event must have felt at the time. Perhaps Satoshi Nakamoto himself felt something shift as he hit ENTER to run his program; maybe there was a sense of impending momentum and change, like a glitch in the Matrix. Or maybe he just stared silently at a screen as the code began to execute and proof of work (PoW) on the mining machine/s kicked in. Either way, the world went on about its business as normal that day in January 2009, and the full effects of Bitcoin would not be felt for a long time.

Arguably, we haven’t even felt the full effects now, over a decade and a half after that moment. There’s now roughly $3 trillion worth of market cap riding on the networks that began with Satoshi’s push of a button. We say “networks” since there are now at least three separate blockchains that can trace their lineage back to that moment on January 3, 2009. That total market cap is just the value of “Bitcoins” themselves. Surely, the value Bitcoin has since created in jobs, businesses, hype, and even legal drama is much higher than that figure.

We should also add the collective valuations of coin prices and economies in all other non-Bitcoin blockchains as well, because without Bitcoin, it’s doubtful that any of them would have existed. No Ethereum, no Solana, no Litecoin or DOGE.

And yet, there’s still only one “original Bitcoin.” BSV, aka “Bitcoin Satoshi Vision,” has that name because it’s the only blockchain with Genesis Block heritage that still follows the rules Satoshi Nakamoto set for his network protocol when it began. A complex transaction that was incorporated into the Bitcoin network in 2009 is still valid on BSV today. BSV has unbounded scaling with no limit on how large its transaction blocks can be or how much data a user can include in each transaction. Any information recorded on the blockchain is timestamped, immutable, and verifiable. Scaling completely on-chain, BSV still chugs away 16 years later with only a few minor hiccups.

In January 2009, there was no such thing as a Bitcoin “ticker symbol,” and you could mine hundreds of coins without making a single cent. There was no BTC, BSV, or BCH at that moment, and no one would buy one from you at any price.

Timestamps and times of crisis

Satoshi, however, had at least an inkling that Bitcoin was something important at the time. It was probably far more than an inkling. According to Bitcoin lore, the Genesis Block needed to be constructed (i.e., hard-coded) to kick things off. It wasn’t “mined” by PoW like every other block on the Bitcoin network since. But to act as an anchor for the network and its transaction database record, it still needed a stamp to prove it existed at a certain moment in time.

For that timestamp, Satoshi chose to embed a headline from The Times on the day Bitcoin began. “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” was the headline, and despite claims the headline was chosen almost randomly, it also kicked off a sentiment that would define Bitcoin’s culture: it represented a new way of looking at finance and the government’s role in it.

January 2009 was smack in the middle of what we now call the “Global Financial Crisis,” when it looked like the world’s entire financial system was in danger of collapsing. The (U.K.) Chancellor’s plan to bail out large financial institutions for a second time indicated that governments not only were prepared to use public funds to save the existing system but there was diminishing confidence that their actions would even work.

Sixteen years later, and it’s still unclear whether those bailouts “worked” or not. The world may no longer face an imminent financial collapse (maybe!), but it could be on the brink of something far worse. In 2009, the financial system confronted a lack of trust. In 2024, it’s the world order itself. In France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a handful of smaller countries, the governments themselves imploded—in some cases by electoral defeat and in others by no-confidence motions.

At the same time, there are at least three geopolitical flashpoints with the potential to kick off the next World War, and some of the major players seem hell-bent on making that happen. Truth and reality have become subjective experiences rather than something anyone can verify. In this environment, purveyors of propaganda, misinformation, and “narratives” are having a ball.

Bitcoin celebrates the 16th anniversary of its Genesis Block with a renewed mission to save the world. And this time, it’s not just money but all the information humans can record. That’s a tough challenge. Bitcoin alone can’t solve these problems but, at the very least, if the world can rediscover the importance of truth, we can use it as a tool to fix the mess we’re in. That’s not bad for something that started with the press of an ENTER key on a keyboard.

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