Fourteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block on the Bitcoin Blockchain, a movement that continues to expand today.
Fourteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Whether consciously or not, that movement started a whole movement; one that continues to breathe and expand these many years later.
Etched into the Genesis block is Bitcoin raison d’etre, “Chancellor on brink of the second bailout for banks.”
The new financial paradigm began and only a handful of people recognized it at first sight, Bitcoin was a true financial revolution. This new system threatens the traditional financial system, by being decentralized and immune to censorship.
A Memorable January for The Genesis Block
Without realizing it, Satoshi Nakamoto would change the financial paradigm by creating a new concept of money and finance. Whether it be a group, a government or an individual, Nakamoto rose with Bitcoin as a legend of Web 2.0 that would later produce Web 3.0.
Nobody could imagine that an email would be sent anonymously on October 31, 2008. This small group that received it participated in an unstoppable movement. In this email, the foundations of the code that would give way to the Bitcoin Genesis block a few months later were being laid.
It should be remembered that on October 31, 2022, the crypto community celebrated the 14th anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin white paper. It was on October 31, 2008 that Satoshi published the Bitcoin white paper, which was titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.
Bitcoin’s original goal was to be “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic money” that “would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
Hal Finney, the person to receive BTC from Satoshi, wrote in 2008 that if Bitcoin were to one day become the “dominant payment system in use around the world”, each Bitcoin could be worth $10 million. On January 3, 2019, the Bitcoin network went live, with Satoshi mining the bitcoin genesis block (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 BTC.
A True Financial Revolution
The movement motivated millions of individuals, thus creating a collective that actively develops Bitcoin, and gave way to other cryptocurrencies.
Nakamoto’s project was very clear, to be able to send money over the Internet, in a peer-to-peer system, without financial institutions involved. It is certainly a revolutionary idea, and the use of cryptography to achieve it through the Blockchain ended up being a victory.
Nevertheless, the implications that Bitcoin has had for the world economy have not always been positive, as not all governments and companies seem to be happy with decentralization and peer-to-peer transactions.
By Audy Castaneda
