Bitcoin whitepaper turns 13

If the Bitcoin whitepaper was a person, today he or she would officially be a teenager.

Satoshi Namoto delivered the Bitcoin whitepaper to the world on 31 October 2008 on a mailing list hosted by Metdow.

The email by Satoshi Nakamoto read: “I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”

"The main properties: Double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network. No mint or other trusted parties. Participants can be anonymous. New coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work for new coin generation also powers the network to prevent double-spending," Nakamoto added.

The reply received by Nakamoto from James A. Donald did not express much faith in the project.

"We very, very much need such a system, but the way I understand your proposal, it does not seem to scale to the required size,” Donald said.

However, its influence on the global financial system 13 years later cannot be understated, with many calling for Nakamoto to be awarded the Nobel Prize for both peace and economics.

“Every Bitcoiner should read the whitepaper,” said Jameson Lopp.

“I also think that once you're deep enough down the rabbit hole you should go read the original email thread in which it was announced. You'll recognize a lot of criticisms that are rehashed to this day,” Lopp added.

Today, Bitcoin sits comfortably above $60k after seeing a gradual appreciation of 7,749,999,900% since its launch.