Before #hashtags, podcasts and meetups, early #Bitcoin believers connected in a simple chat room. IRC was where the first Bitcoin community met, collaborated and kept the network alive. Artwork by Zigor (@zigor). IRC was a real time communication protocol created in 1988. Its decentralised server structure resonated with open source communities and later with Bitcoin itself. It was the natural place for early users to gather, troubleshoot software and support each other as they figured out how to run the network. Within 24 hours of Bitcoin’s launch, the #bitcoin channel appeared. Logs show #HalFinney joining on January 10 2009 and receiving a message with two peers’ IP addresses, one believed to be Satoshi’s node. These early channels were not just for conversation. They were essential for peer discovery. Without IRC, users had no way to know which nodes they could connect to. By mid 2010, the #bitcoindev channel became the informal headquarters of early development. It supported node bootstrapping and helped developers find and fix bugs. Satoshi often lurked quietly, preferring Bitcointalk for public posts, but he monitored IRC closely. When an early miner bragged in #bitcoin-dev about high hashpower, Satoshi appeared on the forum to ask what hardware he was using, a clue that he learned about GPU mining through IRC. IRC also documented the rise of early mining giants. ArtForz regularly shared updates about his hashpower, noting 2 Ghash per second in September 2010 and over 15 Ghash per second by December, at one point mining more than 1,200 BTC per day. IRC became a place to share ideas as well as hashrates. It was here that Namecoin, the first Bitcoin spin off, was announced in November 2010. In Bitcoin’s early months, IRC was vital. The Bitcoin client relied on IRC bootstrapping to help users find peers. Once the network grew, this was no longer necessary. Version 0.6.x disabled IRC bootstrapping by default, and by version 0.8.2 it was removed. But for a brief moment, IRC was Bitcoin’s first social hub and the technical bridge that helped the network come alive. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

Bitcoiners Meet Bitcoiners

In Bitcoin’s early days, the #bitcoin IRC channel on Freenode connected miners in real time, becoming the first hub for peer discovery and networ...

Artwork: Bitcoiners Meet Bitcoiners by Zigor (@zigor). Appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline.

Great ideas spark movements, but collaboration turns them into reality. @Martti Malmi (@marttimalmi on X) was one of the first to help build #Bitcoin from nothing. Artwork by Pani Santiago (@pani_santiago on X). Martti discovered Bitcoin in April 2009 while studying computer science in Helsinki. He cared deeply about freedom and self sovereignty and believed technology could achieve what politics could not. Money, he realised, was the most powerful system to change. Centralised alternatives like e-Gold and Liberty Dollar had all failed. A peer to peer system was needed. Searching online, he found Bitcoin, read the Whitepaper and emailed #Satoshi offering to contribute. Satoshi first asked him to write an FAQ for bitcoin dot org. Soon he was helping develop the site and forums, improving the software, porting the client to Linux and coordinating translations. The early community was small, idealistic and focused on building a better monetary system. The Slashdot mention in 2010 triggered rapid growth. Miners flooded in and the culture shifted. Martti kept his node running so newcomers always had peers. With difficulty still at 1, he could mine 200 to 300 BTC per day on his laptop. Over time he mined more than 55,000 BTC, turning mining off only when playing Counter Strike. In October 2009, he completed the first known BTC USD trade, selling 5,050 BTC for 5.02 dollars. In 2010, he launched BitcoinExchange dot com, the first semi automated exchange. He shut it down later that year as Mt. Gox gained traction and due to Finnish regulatory constraints. As Bitcoin grew, Martti had less time to contribute. He sold part of his holdings in 2011 to buy a studio apartment, a major moment for him at age 22. Later he had to sell more BTC at low prices while between jobs. Today, the BTC he once had would make him a billionaire, but he does not dwell on that. He says he gained far more from the people, ideas and experiences that came from helping build Bitcoin. He reflects on gratitude, on @Ross Ulbricht harsh sentence, and on the importance of appreciating what we have. Most of all, he is proud of Bitcoin’s impact. It has made millions ask what money really is and created a culture that still grows stronger. In his words, the snowball is only beginning to roll. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

From Solo to Shared

In 2009, Finnish developer Martti Malmi reached out to Satoshi. Their exchange sparked a mentorship that shaped Bitcoin’s formative early days.

Artwork: From Solo to Shared by Pani Santiago (@pani_santiago over on X). With thanks to @Martti Malmi (@marttimalmi over on X) for sharing his story. Appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline.

Before #Bitcoin meant anything to the world, it meant something to two people who believed in it. The first transaction between #SatoshiNakamoto and #HalFinney still carries a quiet power. Artwork by Paul Milinski (@paul_milinski). On January 12 2009, Bitcoin recorded its first transaction. One day earlier, Hal Finney had already made history by becoming the first person to ever tweet about Bitcoin. His simple message read: Running bitcoin. A day later, his wallet received 10 BTC from #Satoshi. This was more than a symbolic gesture. It was the first verifiable proof that Bitcoin’s peer to peer network worked as intended. Hal was the natural choice. He had responded quickly to Satoshi’s announcement on the #Cryptography Mailing List and had spun up his own node almost immediately. He became a close collaborator, emailing Satoshi, finding bugs and helping stabilise the young network. At the time, the moment felt unremarkable. Two internet strangers were simply testing software and confirming that transactions could settle. Only later would the full significance become clear. Hal later reflected on the experience. Bitcoin was so early that difficulty was 1. Blocks could be mined with a regular CPU. He mined several blocks but stopped because the computer ran hot and the fan noise was irritating. As he said: I wish I had kept it up longer, but I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. The first transaction showcases Bitcoin’s #UTXO model. Satoshi’s 50 BTC coinbase reward was split into two parts: 10 BTC sent to Hal and 40 BTC returned to Satoshi as a separate output. There were no network fees. No congestion. Just one input and two outputs. A clean, direct demonstration of Bitcoin working exactly as the Whitepaper described: a peer to peer electronic cash system. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

First Signs of Life

On January 9, 2009, Bitcoin began processing blocks. Days later, Satoshi sent the first transaction to Hal Finney, marking the start of a growing l...

Artwork: First Signs of Life by Paul Milinski (@paul_milinsk over on Xi). Appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline.

Before #Bitcoin ran like clockwork, it waited six days for its second block. Block 1 is one of the most studied moments in Bitcoin history, surpassed only by the #genesisblock itself. Artwork by MLOdotArt (@MLOdotArt On X). Block 1 arrived on January 9 2009. It contained no hidden message from #Satoshi, yet in every practical sense it marked the moment Bitcoin became a functioning network. The mystery is the six day gap. Bitcoin targets a block roughly every 10 minutes, so why did the second block take almost a week? Some believe Satoshi simply rested after months of intense work. Others have suggested a playful nod to the seven day creation story in Genesis. The more grounded explanation is that Satoshi did not want to pre mine a large number of coins before others could join. There is evidence that the early Bitcoin client may not have mined until it connected to at least one other node. Block 1 appeared around seven hours after Satoshi shared the source code on the #Cypherpunk Mailing List. This timing suggests that a second user, likely Hal Finney, had to begin running the software before the network would continue producing blocks. Many theories surround what happened during the gap. One idea is that Satoshi may have run a private test network for several days after mining the genesis block. He could have mined additional test blocks to verify stability, then discarded them before the public release on January 9. What is certain is that Satoshi wanted Bitcoin’s first public steps to be solid. He understood that only a few cryptographers were willing to try it, and if the software did not work immediately, they might not return. Block 1 was worth the wait. It contained the first spendable coins. While the 50 BTC in the genesis block cannot be spent, the 50 BTC reward in block 1 is fully transferable. For this reason, some consider January 9 to be Bitcoin’s true birthday. Until that moment, Bitcoin existed only as an idea. With block 1, it became a living #peertopeer network. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

Bitcoin's Slowest Ever Block

Bitcoin’s second block appeared six days after the first, sparking theories of a deliberate seven-day ‘genesis’ and leaving one of Bitcoin’...

Artwork: Bitcoin’s Slowest Ever Block by MLOdotArt (@MLOdotArt over on X). Appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and interactive timeline.

Did you know #SatoshiNakamoto’s pre release #Bitcoin code included a poker lobby and a peer to peer marketplace? These early features offer a rare glimpse into Satoshi’s broader vision for what Bitcoin might one day support. We explore them in this chapter, visualised by gmunk (@gmunk) using the original source code as his medium. After launching the Bitcoin network on January 3 2009, Satoshi published the source code five days later. Written in C++ and released for Windows, it revealed both his thinking and his technical depth. Many people have read the Whitepaper. Far fewer have read the actual code, which is long, intricate and full of unexpected details. Like the Whitepaper, #Satoshi privately shared an early draft of the code in late 2008. This pre release version contained features that did not make it to v0.1 on January 8 2009. These included a basic IRC client, a peer to peer marketplace and even a virtual poker game. It also used the term bitcoin miner, a phrase that never appeared in the Whitepaper. The curiosities are interesting, but the main achievement is more important. In roughly 15,000 lines of C++, Satoshi solved the double spending problem that had blocked earlier digital cash attempts. He implemented Proof of Work, the peer to peer network, and even included a graphical wallet interface. Satoshi later wrote that once version 0.1 was released, the core design was effectively set in stone. Still, he warned testers that the software was alpha and might need a full restart. Fefe Demeny observes that Satoshi created Bitcoin to help people escape a broken financial system. He delivered a profound innovation and chose to remain anonymous, giving the invention without seeking recognition. Bitcoin needed more than one node to come alive. The first to join was #HalFinney, who downloaded the code on January 10 and wrote: I am looking forward to trying it out. Those early users did not realise they were making history. They were simply experimenting with new software. Yet some saw something greater. They recognised a financial network unlike anything before it and kept their nodes online to support it. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

Straight from the Source

Satoshi released Bitcoin’s source code on Bitcointalk, sparking a community hub and revealing early clues to the creator’s vision for digital m...

Artwork: Death of Kings, Rise of Code by gmunk (@gmunk on X). Appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and interactive timeline.

Bitcoin began as a response to fear. On January 3rd, 2009, #SatoshiNakamoto launched the #Bitcoin network and embedded a warning inside its very first block, a newspaper headline about another looming bank bailout. The journalist behind those words, Francis Elliot (@elliottengage on X), later discovered his headline had become part of financial history and was anonymously sent Bitcoin in response. Every creation has a genesis moment. Bitcoin’s came with symbolism, mythology, and intent, but underneath it all, it was a network launch. At 18:15:05 UTC, #Satoshi mined block 0, awarding 50 BTC to the very first address. Bitcoin was empty, quiet, and inhabited by its unseen creator. The most famous part of the #genesisblock isn’t technical, though its hash beginning with two extra hex zeroes suggests Satoshi mined it with extra care. What matters is the embedded message: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” On the surface, it was a timestamp. In reality, it was a manifesto. A statement that Bitcoin would be everything the legacy system was not: verifiable, auditable, transparent, and immune to bailouts. Physical copies of that issue of The Times have since become collectors’ items. Francis Elliot recalls tweeting his surprise after learning his headline had been encoded into the block. “Then a load of #bitcoiners reacted,” he said, “and threw me some coins, which I had the good sense to save.” Another curiosity: the 50 BTC block reward from the genesis block can never be spent. While some consider it an accident, it is far more likely to have been deliberate, a signal that #Satoshi wasn’t doing this for personal gain. The genesis block was his pledge never to cash out. In the years since, the block has taken on a life of its own. Satoshi’s first address has become a message board, with people sending tiny amounts of BTC and OP_RETURN messages in tribute. Analysts study the block for symbolism, easter eggs, and clues about Satoshi’s intentions. It remains the emptiest block in Bitcoin history, and one of the most meaningful. We explore this story in “In the Beginning, Satoshi Created Bitcoin,” accompanied by artwork from Federico Clapis (@FedericoClapis on X). The piece is scratch-reveal and appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

In the Beginning, Satoshi Created Bitcoin

On Jan 3, 2009, Satoshi mined Bitcoin’s genesis block, embedding a Times headline on bank bailouts—marking the symbolic birth of cryptocurrency.

What was #SatoshiNakamoto’s first public act? Before the Whitepaper. Before the code. Before the #GenesisBlock. On 18 August 2008, #Satoshi anonymously registered a simple domain: bitcoin.org. Almost no one noticed. But that domain would become the launchpad for a monetary revolution. When the site first appeared, it was just 700 words in plain text. The opening line introduced “the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system that uses a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending. It’s completely decentralized with no server or central authority.” It was concise. Direct. #Cypherpunk to the core. To register the domain anonymously, Satoshi used a service called AnonymousSpeech, a tool designed for anonymous domains and email. Achieving this anonymity required creative methods: cash mailed to a Swiss PO box, e-gold digital currency, and a bank wire to a Swiss account under the name “Mike Weber.” There is irony in the fact that Satoshi had to jump through all these hoops. If only a peer-to-peer digital currency had existed. Once the domain was secured, he built a simple website that would become Bitcoin’s earliest basecamp. Six weeks after registering it, on October 31st 2008, Satoshi announced #Bitcoin to the Cryptography Mailing List, linking to the Whitepaper hosted on bitcoin.org. The site included screenshots of the original Bitcoin client, downloading instructions via SourceForge, and a brief explanation of how the system worked. For early adopters, it was all they needed to begin running the software. In the following months, the site expanded with an introduction to Bitcoin, a list of advantages, and help for new users. It emphasised key ideas: no central authority, no reliance on trusted intermediaries, and the ability to hide real-world identity. Many sections were likely written by #Satoshi or Martti Malmi, one of the earliest contributors. By 2010, bitcoin.org was receiving worldwide attention, and Satoshi was preparing to leave. True to his design principles, he decentralised control of the domain before stepping back. Developer wbnns recalls: “When Satoshi left the project, he gave ownership of the domain to additional people, separate from the Bitcoin developers, to spread responsibility and prevent any one person or group from easily gaining control over the Bitcoin project.” Since then, bitcoin.org has been maintained by various community members. It still receives millions of visits a year and remains one of Bitcoin’s most important historical artefacts. A simple domain, but the gateway to everything that came next. We’ve captured this chapter in “The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi” with the artwork “THE WEBSITE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD” by Vesa (@artbyvesa on X). It appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

The Website That Changed the World

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto quietly registered Bitcoin.org. Once unnoticed, the domain became the launchpad for the world’s first cryptocurrency.

PAY ATTENTION TO BITCOIN WHEN THE WORLD IS FALLING APART. Every major global crisis has pushed more people toward #Bitcoin. 2009: Financial crisis → Genesis Block 2013: Cyprus bank haircuts → Bitcoin surges 2020: Pandemic fear → +416% 2025: You are here. The history matters. While Wall Street was burning in 2008, #SatoshiNakamoto was quietly building an exit. As the global financial system cracked under the weight of reckless lending, collapsing banks, and evaporating trust, #Satoshi was assembling a new kind of monetary architecture, one that didn’t depend on the stability or honesty of financial institutions. The crash began long before Lehman Brothers fell. In early 2007, New Century Financial collapsed under subprime defaults. HSBC announced a $10.5B write-down. Bear Stearns froze withdrawals in its mortgage-backed hedge funds. The warning signs were there, but few listened. By 2008, the dominos fell fast: Bear Stearns collapsed, Lehman Brothers died after 158 years, credit markets froze, and panic spread globally. Governments rushed in with bailouts while the public watched trust evaporate. During this period, #Satoshi was finalising the #BitcoinWhitepaper, opening with a simple idea and ending with a powerful message: electronic payments without relying on trust. Satoshi had started working on Bitcoin in mid-2007, around the exact time “bank run” re-entered common vocabulary. The timing wasn’t an accident. He recognised the need for a monetary system that couldn’t be manipulated, frozen, or debased by failure-prone institutions. On August 22, 2008, as markets were deteriorating further, he contacted Wei Dai to reference the earlier “b-money” concept. Bitcoin was nearing completion just as the traditional system was in freefall. Then came the statement that immortalised the moment: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” Embedded forever in Bitcoin’s Genesis Block, a timestamped reminder that Bitcoin was born from a crash. We capture this pivotal chapter in “The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi,” accompanied by artwork from Alex (@paintwithalex over on X). It appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

It Began With a Crash

As Satoshi built Bitcoin in 2008, the global financial crisis hit. Bank bailouts and recession fuelled public mistrust, amplifying Bitcoin’s purp...

To understand #Bitcoin’s resilience, it helps to understand the ideas that came before it. One of the most important was @Nick Szabo / @NickSzabo4 (RSS Feed) Bit Gold, a direct intellectual ancestor to #Bitcoin and a critical step in the evolution of electronic cash. Szabo was one of the #Cypherpunks who worked at David Chaum’s #Digicash in Amsterdam. But while he was there, he realized that #Ecash had a fundamental flaw: it was centralised. Employees theoretically had the ability to secretly issue coins and manipulate the system. This insight led Szabo to a principle he repeated often: “Trusted third parties are security holes.” About a year after @Adam Back introduced #Hashcash, Szabo used its proof-of-work mechanism to design a new kind of digital money that didn’t rely on any single operator: Bit Gold. Like Hashcash, #BitGold units were created by hashing. Only some hashes were valid, and finding one required computational work. But Bit Gold added a new twist: when someone found a valid hash, they would publish it publicly and “own” it. The hash would be attributed to their public key. If they later wanted to transfer it, they would publish a signed message assigning ownership to a new public key. But Bit Gold faced two major challenges before it could function as money. The first was inflation. As computers become more powerful, generating valid hashes gets easier. Over time, the supply of new Bit Gold units could explode. Szabo envisioned a complex mechanism to stabilise difficulty and reduce technological inflation, but it was never fully fleshed out. The second challenge was ownership tracking. Szabo imagined a distributed registry to keep track of which public keys owned which hashes. But trusted third parties were not acceptable, so this registry would have to be maintained by a group of users. In theory, if a conflict occurred, such as a double spend, this group would resolve it through a sophisticated voting process. But Szabo never explained who these users would be, how they would be chosen, or how to prevent collusion and #Sybil attacks. In the end, Bit Gold was never implemented. It wasn’t yet equipped to solve these economic and coordination problems. Even so, Bit Gold represented a huge leap forward. It pushed the concept of digital money closer to what Bitcoin would eventually become, introducing ideas that would later prove essential. We honour this chapter in “The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi” with original artwork by Smashtoshi. It appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. You can read the full article by Aaron van Wirdum here:

History of Bitcoin

Discovering Digital Gold

Nick Szabo’s Bit Gold, the ‘money that never was,’ laid crucial groundwork for Bitcoin. A decade later, Satoshi built on its ideas with Proof...

Red candles come and go. History says relax. Long before #Bitcoin existed, #HalFinney was keeping the #Cypherpunk dream alive. Even in the early 2000s, when many had lost hope that electronic cash would ever work, Finney refused to give up. Hal wasn’t just an early #Bitcoiner, he was one of the most committed Cypherpunks. A video game developer from California and an early contributor to PGP, he reviewed almost every e-cash proposal the mailing list produced. In 2004, he launched his own system: Reusable Proof of Work (#RPOW). Like #Hashcash and #BitGold, RPOW used proof of work to create new value. Users would connect to a server operated by Finney, solve a PoW challenge, and receive an RPOW token. The server kept a database of issued tokens to prevent double spending. To spend RPOW, you simply sent your token to someone else. They would then forward it to the RPOW server, which validated it and issued them a new one. In this way, proof of work became reusable. Privacy was built in. All connections to the server went through Tor, so Hal never knew who his users were. To guarantee honesty, Finney relied on open-source software and a new technique called “remote attestation.” The RPOW code ran on a special IBM chip that could cryptographically prove it was running the correct software, ensuring that no one, not even Hal, could secretly mint tokens. Unlike Bit Gold, RPOW was actually implemented and ran in the real world. But it had one major flaw: as computers became faster, generating new RPOW tokens became easier. Over time, the currency would inflate. There was no economic incentive to hold or accept it. Without that, RPOW never gained traction. Finney had solved electronic cash on a technical level, but the economics weren’t right. Bitcoin would later fix that by aligning incentives with proof of work. We honour this chapter in “The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi” with the artwork: “REUSABLE WORK” by Yonat Vaks (@yonatvaks on X). It appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article by Aaron van Wirdum:

History of Bitcoin

Reusable Work

Hal Finney’s Reusable Proof-of-Work (RPOW) introduced the idea of digital tokens backed by real-world resources, an early step toward Bitcoin’s...