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.

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>