In a recent tweet, Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo shared a throwback to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin, explaining why Bitcoin was a scientific breakthrough even when it was priced at zero dollars. This groundbreaking vision has now marked exactly 16 years.
"Satoshi Nakamoto explaining why Bitcoin was a scientific breakthrough at $0, exactly 16 years ago," Rizzo wrote.
✨ Satoshi Nakamoto explaining why #Bitcoin was a scientific breakthrough at $0, exactly 16 years ago One the greatest minds in history 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1ikKicUr9I
— The Bitcoin Historian (@pete_rizzo_) November 13, 2024
Satoshi Nakamoto’s pioneering Bitcoin whitepaper, "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," published on Oct. 31, 2008, described a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
card
This underlying theory was about more than just technology; in the days that followed, Satoshi went on to explain this foundational idea in emails now contained in a cryptography mailing list.
Bitcoin would launch months later, with Satoshi mining the genesis block in January 2009.
Bitcoin a scientific breakthrough: Satoshi Nakamoto
Rizzo included in his tweet a screenshot of one of Satoshi's "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper" mailings dated Nov. 13, 2008, in which Satoshi explained Bitcoin as a pioneering innovation. Satoshi stated explicitly that the "proof of work chain is a solution to the byzantine Generals' problem."
card
"The proof of work chain is how all the synchronization, distributed database and global view problems you've have asked about to be solved," Satoshi concluded in his email.
The timing of Rizzo's post is particularly significant, as Bitcoin recently reached fresh all-time highs, building on its previous run over the past week.
Bitcoin, the world's first and largest cryptocurrency, topped $91,000 to achieve a new all-time high of $91,981, marking the fourth consecutive day of steady record highs.
