Six weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an anonymous author introduced the design for a currency that would not rely on trusted intermediaries. The 9-page PDF references cryptographic proof-of-work, timestamp servers, and merkle trees. No one has ever conclusively identified Satoshi. The paper is the seed of a $3T+ asset class.
protocol·October 31, 2008
Bitcoin Whitepaper Published
Satoshi Nakamoto publishes 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' to a cryptography mailing list.