Thread by @BitcoinMagazine

Today is #Bitcoin White Paper Day!

On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” the technical vision for a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that would become the preeminent cryptocurrency and blockchain.

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As the growth of Bitcoin has proven, the need for a P2P, electronic version of cash was much needed then and has become even more important today. What better time than this anniversary to revisit this seminal document?

bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

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In the paper, Nakamoto outlines many of the qualities that have made Bitcoin so successful — including transaction signature verification, timestamping and proof of work — with notable prescience. For instance, Bitcoin’s critical difficulty adjustment (cont. below):

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“To compensate for increasing hardware speed and varying interest in running nodes over time, the proof-of-work difficulty is determined by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour. If they're generated too fast, the difficulty increases.”

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Following the release of the white paper, the pseudonymous Nakamoto continued to work on the development of Bitcoin remotely and collaborate with others. But Nakamoto’s last message to the Bitcoin Talk forum was sent on December 12, 2010.

bitcointalk.org/index.php?acti…

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For more on our favorite aspects of the Bitcoin white paper, check out our tribute from Bitcoin’s tenth anniversary:

bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/its-1…

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Some fun facts: Today is Halloween in the U.S., but it’s also remembered as the official start of the Reformation, as the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

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Did Satoshi time the beginning of his own digital revolution to coincide with the historic anniversary? We wouldn’t put it past Bitcoin’s founding figure...

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If you like the image at the top of this thread and you’re looking for something special this White Paper Day, head over to our store and cop this commemorative shirt:

store.bitcoinmagazine.com/collections/ap…

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So, happy Bitcoin White Paper Day to you all (except Craig Wright)! Let us know how you’re celebrating in the comments!

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