A short history of Satoshi’s involvement in Bitcoin.
The events from 2008 down to the date of commencement of the COPA action are based on the short chronology agreed before Trial, supplemented by some uncontroversial dates drawn from various witness statements.
By way of background, it is generally accepted that the earliest concept of digital cash was devised by an American cryptographer called David Chaum who proposed a form of token currency in the early 1980s which could be transferred safely between individuals, supported by encryption tools. In the 1990s, several further electronic currency systems were proposed, including E-Gold (Dr Jackson and Mr Downey); Bit Gold (Nick Szabo); B-Money (Wei Dai); and Hashcash (Dr Adam Back). Hashcash used a proof-of-work algorithm, as many modern cryptocurrencies do.
Bitcoin is based on concepts first set out in the Bitcoin White Paper, the full title of which is: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. It was written by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is agreed to be a pseudonym.
The following dates concern the period when the Satoshi pseudonym was in use:
In August 2008, Satoshi acquired the bitcoin.org domain name, which was used to establish the bitcoin.org Website.
On 20 August 2008, Satoshi contacted Dr Back by email, referring him to a draft of the White Paper hosted on the “upload.ae” site and asking to check a reference to his paper on Hashcash. Dr Back replied on 21 August 2008, informing Satoshi about Wei Dai’s B-Money Paper. On 22 August 2008, Satoshi then wrote to Wei Dai to check the reference for that paper. These early emails contain abstracts of the draft paper. It should be noted that the Satoshi / Wei Dai emails were published before these proceedings, while the Satoshi / Adam Back emails were not.
On 5 October 2008, Satoshi registered an account (i.e. the nakamoto2 Account) at SourceForge. He used this account to create a project, entitled ‘Bitcoin’, on SourceForge (i.e. the SourceForge Bitcoin Project).
On 31 October 2008, Satoshi released the White Paper by posting a link to it (on the bitcoin.org website). He sent an email to the “metzdowd cryptography mailing list” (“the Metzdowd List”) (a group of individuals interested in cryptography) directing them to the link on the “bitcoin.org” site, where the document was hosted.
On 8/9 December 2008, Satoshi uploaded the White Paper to the SourceForge Bitcoin Project.
On 3/4 January 2009 (depending on time zone), Satoshi created the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain, i.e. the Genesis Block or Block 0.
On 8 January 2009, Satoshi uploaded the Bitcoin Software (comprising an executable file and the corresponding source code) to the SourceForge Bitcoin Project. On the same day, he announced the release of the Bitcoin Software by posting links to (i) the Bitcoin Software on the SourceForge Bitcoin Project, and (ii) the Bitcoin.org Website, containing screenshots and other explanatory information about the Bitcoin system.
The first block following the Genesis Block, i.e. Block 1, was mined by Satoshi on 9 January 2009. Three days later, the first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain was recorded in Block 170, involving the transfer by Satoshi to Hal Finney of 10 Bitcoins which Satoshi had mined from Block 9.
On 24 March 2009, Satoshi uploaded a further version of the White Paper to the SourceForge Bitcoin Project.
On 2 May 2009, Satoshi asked Mr Malmi to create an FAQ for the SourceForge Bitcoin Project. Later in 2009, Mr Malmi helped Satoshi set up forums for the SourceForge Bitcoin Project.
In around April 2011, Satoshi delegated responsibility for being the lead core developer of Bitcoin to Mr Andresen. On 26 April 2011, Satoshi transferred a file containing the network alert key to Mr Andresen.
In the very early days of the Bitcoin system, Bitcoin had negligible value.