Exactly 10 years ago, 31 October 2008 at 2:10, the developer of the Bitcoin network, Satoshi Nakamoto, published the whitepaper of the cryptocurrency using an email. Now the currency is celebrating its 10th anniversary as the first peer-to-peer version in the form of electronic money.
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Bitcoin Whitepaper: 8 Pages of Sheer Innovation
The Bitcoin white paper should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to understand the innovation of the first crypto network supported by a proof-of-work (PoW) system. Although a variety of similar protocols and white papers have been published in the last 10 years, they are not comparable to the results of Satoshi’s white paper or the Bitcoin network itself. Instead of a central control instance, Satoshi describes a “system based on cryptographic evidence rather than trust”.
“A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic money would make it possible to send payments online directly from one party to the next without going through a financial institution,” he wrote to everyone on the email’s recipient list.”
Resisting the Byzantine error
In comparison to other theoretical papers on digital coins, the original whitepaper briefly describes the essence of the network before it went online on January 3, 2009. Since then, we have been able to follow the development of the Bitcoin network, the price development of the cryptocurrency and the expansion of the reach.
We were also able to see how the system has resisted problems such as the Byzantine error for 10 years. “The network stamps transactions by subdividing them into a continuous chain with a proof-of-work based on the hashrate, creating a database that cannot be changed without changing the proof-of-work,” wrote Satoshi.
He also explained:
“The system is secure as long as honest nodes together have more CPU power than a cooperating group of attacker nodes.”
Since then, the Bitcoin whitepaper has changed the lives of many people. Online merchants no longer have to rely on financial institutions to process electronic payments. The road has not always been easy for Bitcoin supporters. Market slumps, legal hurdles or disunity within the community have marked the development of the cryptocurrency. However, Bitcoin fans agree that we are still at the beginning of the financial revolution that started the coin we love.