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October 31, 2008Origins & cultureResearch & proposalsdocumented

The Bitcoin white paper is announced

Satoshi Nakamoto announced “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” on the Cryptography Mailing List.

A computer screen displaying the opening page of the Bitcoin white paper
ARCHIVE ARTIFACT · WHITE PAPER MOCKUPWikideas1 · CC0 / Wikimedia Commons ↗

The nine-page paper proposed electronic payments without a trusted financial intermediary. It combined proof of work, a peer-to-peer timestamp server, and economic incentives into a system designed to resist double spending.