“I’ve
been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully
peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”
(Satoshi Nakamoto, October 2008)
###
Satoshi
Nakamoto (he/she/they?) created the first version of Bitcoin in the
spring of 2007, which, in retrospect, seems prescient. A year later,
the whole global financial system melted down into a recession,
thanks to big investment banks (under the jurisdiction of the Federal
Reserve) making irresponsible bets on unsecured mortgages. Bitcoin,
which operates outside of a central authority (no “Bitcoin
Headquarters” exists), suddenly seemed like an idea whose time had
come.
Satoshi
wrote soon after, “The root problem with conventional currency is
all the trust that’s required to make it work. Banks must be
trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they
lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in
reserve.”
You
can read his 9-page “white paper” introducing Bitcoin here.
First page of Satoshi Nakamoto’s “white paper” issued October 31, 2008, describing Bitcoin and the blockchain.
But
Bitcoin isn’t really the best (enlightened money!) or the worst
(Ponzi scheme!) of Satoshi’s inventions. Whatever you think of
Bitcoin (and its hundreds of copycat currencies), what Satoshi will
be remembered for in the future is the blockchain,
a brilliant way for anyone to communicate, safely and discreetly,
with anyone else,…
