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2008The idea arrives

Bitcoin did not exist yet, but its blueprint did. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, a pseudonymous author calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto published a design for electronic cash that needed no bank or payment processor.

Year-end price (approx.)

Not yet traded

Block reward

Not yet started

White paper

9 pages

What happened

1. Aug 18

   The domain name bitcoin.org is registered, about two months before the idea is made public.

2. Sep 15

   Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, the defining moment of the 2008 financial crisis and the backdrop to Bitcoin’s origin story.

3. Oct 31

   Satoshi Nakamoto shares the white paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” with a cryptography mailing list.

4. Nov

   List members debate the design, and Satoshi answers questions about double-spending, scaling and how the network would stay honest.

Why it mattered

The white paper combined existing ideas (digital signatures, proof of work and peer-to-peer networking) into the first workable answer to the double-spending problem without a trusted third party.

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