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Wallets and Keys

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On October 31 2008, during the financial crisis, someone using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin’s white paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,”. This design was fully decentralised: anyone could download the open-source software to verify, mine, or use Bitcoin. 

No single entity controlled it, eliminating single points of failure. It featured digital signatures, proof-of-work, a limited supply halving every four years, and the blockchain; a public, decentralised ledger.

Bitcoin wasn’t the first digital currency when launched in 2009, prior attempts existed.

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First was eCash, commercialised in the early 90s by cryptographer David Chaum for anonymous, privacy-preserving digital payments. His company, Digicash, went bankrupt in 1998, taking eCash with it.

Then was e-gold, a gold-backed digital currency launched in 1996 by Douglas Jackson and Barry Downey but was dismantled in 2009 after U.S. money-laundering charges.

Another one, Liberty Reserve, launched in 2006 by Arthur Budovsky for anonymous transfers; in 2013, the US authorities shut it down and charged Arthur Budovsky with “Conspiracy to commit money laundering”.

 

A promising but unimplemented proposal was Bit Gold by Nick Szabo in 1998, using proof-of-work puzzles for mining and unforgeable ownership chains.

These centralised projects never succeeded like Bitcoin, but it was from these ideas of internet money that Bitcoin was born. 

On January 3, 2009, Satoshi mined the Genesis Block, embedding: 

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

The Bitcoin revolution began.

Bitcoin wasn’t just digital money;

it revolutionised money.

Satoshi created the first decentralised and scarce digital currency.

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At first, only a few cypherpunks were using it; but it rapidly became popular. It started with the very first transaction recorded from Satoshi to the cryptographer Hal Finney on January 12th, 2009, when Bitcoin was worth less than a cent, to today being one of the top ten biggest assets in the world with a market cap of over a trillion dollars.

It even became a national asset for the U.S. in March 2025 when they established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to hold Treasury’s forfeited BTC.

Bitcoin evolved from a niche project to a globally recognised asset. 

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Yet it’s still early: less than 3% of the world (~240 million people) hold Bitcoin in 2025.

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Key milestones:

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  • January 12, 2009: First transaction—Satoshi sends 10 BTC to cryptographer Hal Finney.

 

  • May 22, 2010: Laszlo Hanyecz buys two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, the first real-world Bitcoin purchase.

 

  • February 9, 2011: Bitcoin reaches $1.

 

  • April 26, 2011: Satoshi’s last message to Gavin Andresen: “I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone,” before vanishing.

 

  • March 28, 2013: Market cap hits $1 billion.

 

  • October 2013: FBI shuts down Silk Road, seizing 26,000 BTC; Bitcoin gains a “dark web drug money” reputation.

 

  • February 24, 2014: Mt. Gox collapses; over 744,000 BTC stolen.

 

  • August 1, 2017: Bitcoin Cash hard fork over block-size debate; it remains less successful than Bitcoin.

 

  • June 7, 2021: El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as legal tender.

 

  • December 5, 2024: Bitcoin surpasses $100,000.

 

  • March 6, 2025: U.S. establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under Trump to hold Treasury’s forfeited BTC as a national asset.

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