On Oct. 31, 2008, at 2:10 p.m. EDT, the creator of the bitcoin network, Satoshi Nakamoto, announced the publication of the protocol’s whitepaper using a Vistomail email address. It’s now been 10 years to the day since Satoshi’s idea was first revealed to the world — an idea that unleashed the first pure peer-to-peer version of electronic cash.
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The bitcoin Whitepaper:
Eight Pages of Pure Innovation
The bitcoin whitepaper is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the innovation behind the first cryptocurrency network to be powered by a secure proof-of-work (PoW) system. There is nothing quite like or the bitcoin network itself, even though a myriad of similar protocols and whitepapers have popped up over the past decade. Rather than having a centralized third party, Satoshi’s paper describes a “system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust.”
“A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution,” he said to anyone who would listen on a cryptography mailing list.
Staving Off the Byzantine General
However, unlike the droves of theoretical papers written about online currencies before bitcoin, the original whitepaper captured the essence of the entire network, well before it launched on Jan. 3, 2009. Since then we have seen this grand digital asset experiment play out, as the technology has gained value and mainstream attention over the years.
We’ve seen the power of Nakamoto consensus create a computational system that has shielded any attempts at a “Byzantine Generals’ attack” for 10 years. “The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work,” Satoshi said in the renowned document.
He also reassured the reader by stating:
The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes.
The bitcoin whitepaper has since changed the lives of many people. For the first time, internet-based commerce did not have to rely on financial institutions to process electronic payments. Many bitcoiners will tell you it’s been a long run, with many market fiascos and interesting developments along the way. But even after 10 years, they will also assure you that we are still at the beginning of the financial revolution ignited by the technology we all love.
The first encounter with Satoshi 10 years ago on Oct.31, 2008.
Birth of a Network
Despite the warnings of over the years, as well as countless horrible economists, bitcoin is definitely still alive and well. For example, , the vice president of business operations at BTC.com, holds a very different opinion about the technology than the likes of traditional bankers such as . The BTC.com executive believes that Satoshi’s protocol is one of the most revolutionary computational consensus models that society has seen to date.
“bitcoin’s PoW algorithm has proven to be the most successful consensus model, and I believe it is the best way forward for decentralized consensus systems. It provides a strong economic incentive for miners, while automatically adjusting difficulty to maintain long-term mining incentives,” he recently explained to news.bitcoin.com.
After 10 years, the whitepaper has shown us that the protocol is robust and the system continues to grow stronger as each day passes. Seven days after publishing the whitepaper, Satoshi said society “would not find a solution to political problems in cryptography.” However, that week the creator did stress on the cryptography mailing that bitcoin could still win a “major battle,” while gaining a “new territory of freedom for several years.”
bitcoin.com keeps an archived version of the Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper .
What do you think about the bitcoin whitepaper? How did you feel when you read Satoshi’s words for the first time? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments sections below.
Images via Shutterstock, Jamie Redman, and Pixabay.
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Back in April this year (when was more than $8.000), the crypto enthusiast had, during his reality show “Draper Block(chain) party”, predicted that bitcoin will continue it’s bullish growth. Already then, this sounded pretty optimistic as investors were crying over the 50 percent drop in the price at the beginning of the year. Still, even though the price continued to fall, crypto industry was still expanding.
At the in Los Angeles, Draper said that he believes that individuals had the potential to “start their own government”, where social security could be ensured more efficiently and effectively. He added that he believes that bitcoin will be among the top five currencies from the “$86 trillion” evaluation.
Draper :
“So right now, there’s $86 trillion of political currency. They call it ‘fiat’ currency, but it’s political. And I believe that that currency will slowly be eaten up by a better currency which is global, decentralized, frictionless. It’s just better currency. bitcoin’s a better currency. And I think bitcoin will be one of five [cryptocurrencies].”
bitcoin is Secure and Has Never Been Hacked
Crypto communities took this like sort of a prophecy and it’s not strange if we consider the fact that Draper already has an impressive track record with predicting bitcoin price movements. In 2015, he accurately predicted that bitcoin would top $10,000 by the end of 2017. Just for a reminder, BTC grew above $13,000 on December 31, 2017.
In an interview he gave to , he says that people can have complete trust in bitcoin even though it uses a lot of energy.
“What’s great is that when you buy some bitcoin or you move something on a block, it is secure and you know that all those people and all those computers are making sure that that block was moved properly. There are plenty of hacks around the crypto-world but the bitcoin blockchain has never been hacked and you know, knock on wood, we don’t think it ever will be. I think that having that consensus brings an extra boost to confidence. In fact, I am more confident in my bitcoin than I am in the U.S. dollars in Wells Fargo.”
Draper confirmed that SEC’s decision about regulating cryptocurrencies is extremly important, He is confident that SEC will not follow China’s steps. He is known to admire Japan for recognizing bitcoin as a legal currency.
“The United States is open for business! We intend to compete to retain the world’s best innovators. I think the SEC is torn and I think it’s it’s okay because they’re torn between like going after the fraudsters who are taking advantage of the elderly, and making sure that all that technology does stay in the US. They know that it’s a competitive world out there.”
For sceptics around, he compares the cryptocurrency with the beginning of the Internet itself claiming that the way blockchain and cryptocurrencies are behaving at the moment resemble that of internet a few years back before the technology took the world by storm.
He :
“The internet started in the same way, it came in big waves, and then it came crashing down, and then the next wave comes concentrated but much bigger, and I suspect the same thing will go on here, with bitcoin”.
Market Capitalisation to Expand by 5,000%
However, Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, which launched deVere Crypto, the pioneering cryptocurrency app earlier this year, that the next decade will be not the same for the cryptocurrency. He points out that, although bitcoin has irrevocably changed the traditional financial system, its price is expected to “drastically reduce” in the next 10 years, while the entire market capitalisation is going to expand by 5,000% before 2028.
On the other hand, hedge fund manager, Mike Novogratz claimed that bitcoin could reach $10000 by the end of the year.
He said:
“One thing you learn in this process is that everything takes a little longer than you hoped it would. I don’t see us breaking $10,000 by the end of the year.”
The host of the CNBC’s Crypto Trade show said that he believes the bitcoin consolidation is almost over and it’s ‘about to explode’. Approval from the SEC, thinks Neuner, could trigger bitcoin price surge raising it exponentially. Also, he adds, the approval of bitcoin ETF would be a much bigger news than the bitcoin futures. This would, in turn, lead to a flood of institutional money flowing into the market.
This year’s Halloween marked the 10-year anniversary of the foundations of bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency. If Draper is right and the bitcoin comes to the price of $250,000 within the next four years, that means that the market cap will be around $5.25 trillion.
