History of Bitcoin

DISCLAIMER

This article is a an extract from the original https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin and has not been checked for correctness or edited.

• Date: 25 September 2019
• Final reviews must be conducted by: 15 October 2019

Review: May need to be completely dumped Has anyone read Michael Hudson's new book? He's giving it away for free. Maybe we can incorporate it if it's well written.

Need to either remove references to or add in templates

History ends at 2012 (might need to copy more stuff across from 'what is bitcoin' page

History

A cryptographic system for untraceable payments was first described by David Chaum in 1982.<ref>David Chaum, Blind signatures for untraceable payments, Advances in Cryptology - Crypto '82, Springer-Verlag (1983), 199–203.</ref> In 1990 Chaum extended this system to create the first cryptographic anonymous electronic cash system.,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which became known as ecash. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998 Wei Dai published a description of an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system which he called "b-money".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Around the same time, Nick Szabo created bit gold.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="bitgold">Template:Cite web</ref> Like Bitcoin, Bit gold was a currency system where users would compete to solve a proof of work function, with solutions being cryptographically chained together and published via a distributed property title registry. A variant of Bit gold, called Reusable Proofs of Work, was implemented by Hal Finney.<ref name="bitgold"/>

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper<ref name="whitepaper">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> on The Cryptography Mailing list at metzdowd.com<ref>Satoshi's posts to Cryptography mailing list</ref> describing the Bitcoin protocol.

The Bitcoin network came into existence on 3 January 2009 with the release of the first Bitcoin client, wxBitcoin, and the issuance of the first Bitcoins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A year after, the initial exchange rates for Bitcoin were set by individuals on the bitcointalk forums.Template:Citation needed The most significant transaction involved a 10,000 BTC pizza.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Today, the majority of Bitcoin exchanges occur on the Bitstamp Bitcoin exchange.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2011, Wikileaks,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Freenet,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Singularity Institute,<ref>SIAI donation page</ref> Internet Archive,<ref>Internet Archive donation page</ref> Free Software Foundation<ref>Other ways to donate</ref> and others, began to accept donations in Bitcoin. The Electronic Frontier Foundation did so for a while but has since stopped, citing concerns about a lack of legal precedent about new currency systems, and because they "generally don't endorse any type of product or service."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some small businesses had started to adopt Bitcoin. LaCie, a public company, accepts Bitcoin for its Wuala service.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2012, BitPay reports of having over 1000 merchants accepting Bitcoin under its payment processing service.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>