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From the writings

Did you know?

74 sourced facts from Satoshi Nakamoto's public writings and published private emails, each tied to a page in this archive. A random fact also appears each time you open the archive home.

  1. Satoshi's first known message, on 20 August 2008, was an email to Adam Back asking whether a Hashcash citation was right, and sharing a draft paper then titled "Electronic Cash Without a Trusted Third Party."

    Citation of your Hashcash paper · 20 August 2008, 17:30 UTC

  2. The next day, 21 August 2008, Satoshi wrote back to Adam Back: "Thanks, I wasn't aware of the b-money page, but my ideas start from exactly that point."

    RE: Citation of your Hashcash paper · 21 August 2008, 17:59 UTC

  3. On 22 August 2008 Satoshi emailed Wei Dai to confirm a b-money citation, after Adam Back had pointed to Dai's page.

    Citation of your b-money page · 22 August 2008, 16:38 (time as published; timezone not given)

  4. On 31 October 2008 Satoshi announced the Bitcoin paper on the Cryptography mailing list: "I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party."

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 31 October 2008, 18:10 UTC

  5. In that announcement Satoshi listed the main properties: double-spending prevented by a peer-to-peer network, no mint or other trusted parties, participants can be anonymous, and new coins made from Hashcash-style proof-of-work.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 31 October 2008, 18:10 UTC

  6. One of the properties Satoshi listed in the October 2008 announcement was: "No mint or other trusted parties."

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 31 October 2008, 18:10 UTC

  7. Another of those listed properties was: "Participants can be anonymous."

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 31 October 2008, 18:10 UTC

  8. Satoshi wrote that new coins are made from Hashcash-style proof-of-work, and that the same proof-of-work also powers the network to prevent double-spending.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 31 October 2008, 18:10 UTC

  9. The same day, the paper itself was posted as bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf, under the title Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

    Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System · 31 October 2008

  10. The whitepaper cites Adam Back's Hashcash (2002) as the proof-of-work system used instead of newspaper or Usenet posts.

    Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System · 31 October 2008

  11. The first reference in the whitepaper is Wei Dai's 1998 b-money page, weidai.com/bmoney.txt.

    Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System · 31 October 2008

  12. Satoshi wrote that the longest chain is not only proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power.

    Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System · 31 October 2008

  13. Section 8 of the whitepaper, Simplified Payment Verification, describes checking payments with only the chain of block headers, without running a full network node.

    Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System · 31 October 2008

  14. On 8 November 2008 Satoshi told Ray Dillinger that proof-of-work difficulty is set by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour: if they are generated too fast, the difficulty increases.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 8 November 2008, 18:54 UTC

  15. On 9 November 2008 Satoshi told James A. Donald that the proof-of-work chain is the solution to the synchronisation problem, and to knowing the globally shared view without having to trust anyone.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 9 November 2008, 03:09 UTC

  16. Answering a question about two honest blocks found at once, Satoshi wrote that all nodes keep both and work on the one they received first.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 9 November 2008, 16:31 UTC

  17. When James A. Donald worried about seigniorage and inflation, Satoshi said it was easy to tweak the design for transaction fees instead.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 10 November 2008, 02:14 UTC

  18. Satoshi explained that if blocks are being generated too fast, the proof-of-work difficulty doubles, and everyone doing the same calculation gets the same result.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 10 November 2008, 22:18 UTC

  19. On 13 November 2008 Satoshi rephrased the design as a solution to the Byzantine Generals' Problem, after James A. Donald raised common knowledge and consistency.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 13 November 2008, 22:56 UTC

  20. Satoshi told Ray Dillinger that only the buyer signs, and that a new key pair is used for every transaction.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 15 November 2008, 18:02 UTC

  21. Still answering list questions on 17 November 2008, Satoshi said the source code was coming soon and that he had already sent the main files.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 17 November 2008, 17:24 UTC

  22. On 8 January 2009 Satoshi announced Bitcoin v0.1 on the Cryptography list: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, completely decentralized, with no server or central authority, Windows-only for the first build.

    Bitcoin v0.1 released · 8 January 2009, 19:27 UTC

  23. In the v0.1 announcement Satoshi wrote that total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins, cut in half every four years, starting with 10,500,000 coins in the first four years.

    Bitcoin v0.1 released · 8 January 2009, 19:27 UTC

  24. The same post said that when the subsidy runs out, the system can support transaction fees if needed, based on open market competition.

    Bitcoin v0.1 released · 8 January 2009, 19:27 UTC

  25. Satoshi posted 18 times to the Cryptography mailing list that Perry Metzger administered, from the whitepaper announcement through the v0.1 release.

    Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper · 31 October 2008, 18:10 UTC

  26. A few days later Satoshi posted the v0.1 alpha release notes to the SourceForge bitcoin-list as well.

    [bitcoin-list] Bitcoin v0.1 Alpha release notes · 12 January 2009, 20:20 UTC

  27. From 10 January 2009 Satoshi emailed Hal Finney about crashes in the first release, debug symbols, and compiler quirks, as Hal tried the new software.

    RE:Crash in bitcoin 0.1.0 · 10 January 2009, 11:52 (time as published; timezone not given)

  28. On 11 and 12 January 2009 Satoshi worked with Hal through a "select failed: 10038" socket bug that could leave a node connected but silent, and then sent a fix.

    select failed 10038 fix · 11 January 2009, 21:31 (time as published; timezone not given)

  29. By 12 January 2009 Satoshi told Hal the latest crash was from a full disk, a case he had put off handling until a later version.

    Re: select failed 10038 fix · 12 January 2009, 23:59 (time as published; timezone not given)

  30. On 10 January 2009 Satoshi wrote again to Wei Dai, pointing to the v0.1 release and noting that Hal Finney had given a good high-level overview on the Cryptography list.

    Re: Citation of your b-money page · 10 January 2009, 11:17 (time as published; timezone not given)

  31. On 12 January 2009 Satoshi began a published email thread with Dustin Trammell about the new release and how Bitcoin relates to timestamp servers.

    Re: Bitcoin v0.1 released · 12 January 2009, 18:33 UTC

  32. Hal Finney's January 2009 correspondence, later published through the Wall Street Journal, is here as 15 Satoshi-authored emails.

    RE:Crash in bitcoin 0.1.0 · 10 January 2009, 11:52 (time as published; timezone not given)

  33. Dustin Trammell published his 2009 mailbox; this archive has 10 Satoshi-authored messages from that thread.

    Re: Bitcoin v0.1 released · 12 January 2009, 18:33 UTC

  34. On 4 February 2009 Satoshi announced Bitcoin v0.1.5 on bitcoin-list, with a disk-full warning and a DNS-related bug fix, and special thanks to Nicholas and Dustin.

    [bitcoin-list] Bitcoin v0.1.5 released · 4 February 2009, 19:46 UTC

  35. On 11 February 2009 Satoshi posted on the P2P Foundation: a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin, completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties.

    Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency · 11 February 2009, 22:27 UTC

  36. In that P2P Foundation post Satoshi wrote that everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust.

    Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency · 11 February 2009, 22:27 UTC

  37. The next day, on the p2p-research list, Satoshi again stated the limited supply: circulation will be 21,000,000 coins, and transactions only transfer ownership.

    [p2p-research] Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency · 12 February 2009, 19:08 UTC

  38. On 12 April 2009, in a published email to Mike Hearn, Satoshi wrote that if Bitcoin got large there would only be 21 million coins for the whole world, with values as 64-bit integers and 8 decimal places.

    Questions about BitCoin · 12 April 2009, 22:44 (time as published; timezone not given)

  39. In the same April 2009 mail to Hearn, Satoshi guessed that eventually most nodes may be run by specialists with multiple GPU cards, but hoped ordinary PCs could still take part.

    Questions about BitCoin · 12 April 2009, 22:44 (time as published; timezone not given)

  40. Mike Hearn later published five threads of mail with Satoshi; this archive has 16 Satoshi-authored messages from those threads, dated 2009 to April 2011.

    Questions about BitCoin · 12 April 2009, 22:44 (time as published; timezone not given)

  41. On 2 May 2009 Satoshi replied to Martti Malmi, who had offered to help, and promised a compilation of answers from email and forums.

    Re: Bitcoin · 2 May 2009, 17:06 UTC

  42. Writing to Martti on 3 May 2009, Satoshi compared Bitcoin with David Chaum's anonymous digital cash, and said a trusted central company had been the Achilles heel of Chaumian systems.

    Re: Bitcoin · 3 May 2009, 22:32 UTC

  43. That same email to Martti repeats the 21 million cap and the 8 decimal places, so 1 coin is divisible into 100 million units.

    Re: Bitcoin · 3 May 2009, 22:32 UTC

  44. The largest private-email set here is with Martti Malmi: 144 Satoshi-authored messages, from the first reply in May 2009 through the handover of the site.

    Re: Bitcoin · 2 May 2009, 17:06 UTC

  45. NewLibertyStandard, who ran an early bitcoin exchange, appears in this archive both as a published email correspondent and as a forum user Satoshi quoted.

    Re: \[bitcoin-list\] Does Bitcoin Crash in Windows? · 23 October 2009, 23:55 UTC

  46. On 22 November 2009 Satoshi opened the new Bitcoin forum that later became BitcoinTalk, with a link back to the old SourceForge boards and the FAQ.

    Welcome to the new Bitcoin forum! · 22 November 2009, 18:04 UTC

  47. This archive has 539 BitcoinTalk posts under the username satoshi, including threads migrated from the old bitcoin.org forum.

    Welcome to the new Bitcoin forum! · 22 November 2009, 18:04 UTC

  48. On 12 December 2009 Satoshi argued for a gentleman's agreement to postpone the GPU arms race as long as possible, so new users would not need a special video card.

    Re: A few suggestions · 12 December 2009, 17:52 UTC

  49. In that same post Satoshi wrote that faster machines just get a larger share: if everyone bought faster machines, they wouldn't get more coins than before.

    Re: A few suggestions · 12 December 2009, 17:52 UTC

  50. On 4 December 2009 Satoshi told Martti that v0.2 nodes would take free transactions until the block was over 200K, with priority for smaller transactions, and asked him not to talk about the fee design in public yet.

    Re: Bitcoin.org · 4 December 2009, 04:24 UTC

  51. On 14 February 2010 Satoshi replied to theymos about free transactions and size limits: almost all transactions are free, and a small fee is needed only for a really huge one.

    Re: What's with this odd generation? · 14 February 2010, 06:28 UTC

  52. On 6 February 2010 Satoshi wrote that eventually at most only 21 million coins would exist for 6.8 billion people, with more decimal places still available if needed.

    Re: How divisible are bitcoins and other market/economic questions · 6 February 2010, 23:25 UTC

  53. On 18 May 2010 Satoshi said Simplified Payment Verification was not implemented yet and would not be until far in the future, but that the current code was already designed around supporting it.

    Re: Ummmm... where did my bitcoins go? · 18 May 2010, 20:06 UTC

  54. On 17 July 2010, in a thread about a Bitcoin snack machine and fast payments, Satoshi described how a merchant with many listening nodes could be alerted to a double-spend.

    Re: Bitcoin snack machine (fast transaction problem) · 17 July 2010, 22:29 UTC

  55. On 20 July 2010, after a scare that Wikipedia might delete the Bitcoin article, Satoshi described Bitcoin as an implementation of Wei Dai's b-money and Nick Szabo's bit gold.

    Re: They want to delete the Wikipedia article · 20 July 2010, 18:38 UTC

  56. On 3 August 2010 Satoshi joined a BitcoinTalk exchange with Jeff Garzik and Gavin Andresen about JSON-RPC libraries that omit the Content-Length header, and said Bitcoin should try to support that case.

    Re: Content-Length header and 500 (was Re: Authentication, JSON RPC and Python) · 3 August 2010, 21:26 UTC

  57. On 15 August 2010 Satoshi posted in a thread titled "overflow bug SERIOUS," walking through checks for negative and overflow values in transactions.

    Re: overflow bug SERIOUS · 15 August 2010, 20:59 UTC

  58. The same day Satoshi announced version 0.3.10 as the patch for the block 74638 overflow bug.

    Version 0.3.10 - block 74638 overflow PATCH! · 15 August 2010, 23:48 UTC

  59. On 22 August 2010 Satoshi replied to Zooko on BitcoinTalk: "Hey Zooko! I wanted to thank you for posting about Bitcoin on your blog a year or two ago, back when I announced it on the Cryptography mailing list."

    Re: integrating digital payments into p2p protocols · 22 August 2010, 23:57 UTC

  60. The same day, in another thread, Satoshi said a coming release would pop up a message box if your clock was off by more than an hour.

    Re: 28 days without generation, i have 4200khash/s · 22 August 2010, 23:01 UTC

  61. On 3 October 2010 Satoshi explained that extraNonce is not part of the block header, it is part of the first transaction, and does not slow down hashing.

    Re: How to overthrow the GPU Oligarchs · 3 October 2010, 21:30 UTC

  62. On 20 November 2010 Satoshi thanked m0mchil for miner updates and asked GPU miners to upgrade to shut down free-transaction abuse.

    Re: OpenCL miner for the masses · 20 November 2010, 17:24 UTC

  63. On 3 December 2010 Satoshi told Martti that bitcoin.org "should be Gavin. I trust him, he's responsible, professional, and technically much more linux capable than me."

    Re: What was the bitcoin.org outage? · 3 December 2010, 19:58 UTC

  64. On 5 December 2010 Satoshi appealed to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin, calling it a small beta community in its infancy that would not stand to get more than pocket change, and writing that the heat would likely destroy us at this stage.

    Re: Wikileaks contact info? · 5 December 2010, 09:08 UTC

  65. On 11 December 2010, after a PC World article, Satoshi wrote: "WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us."

    Re: PC World Article on Bitcoin · 11 December 2010, 23:39 UTC

  66. Satoshi's last BitcoinTalk post, on 12 December 2010, was titled "Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode (0.3.19)."

    Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode (0.3.19) · 12 December 2010, 18:22 UTC

  67. In that last forum post Satoshi wrote, as he and Gavin had said before, that the software was not at all resistant to DoS attack, and that this release only added some limits.

    Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode (0.3.19) · 12 December 2010, 18:22 UTC

  68. The next day Satoshi mailed the 0.3.19 release notes, repeating the new DoS limits and the removal of safe mode alerts.

    \[bitcoin-list\] Bitcoin 0.3.19 is released · 13 December 2010, 16:11 UTC

  69. On 9 March 2011 Satoshi replied to Mike Hearn about Hearn's open-sourced Java SPV implementation and a proposed getmerklebranch message.

    Open sourced my Java SPV impl · 9 March 2011, 17:15 (time as published; timezone not given)

  70. On 23 April 2011, in a published email to Mike Hearn, Satoshi wrote: "I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone."

    Holding coins in an unspendable state for a rolling time window · 23 April 2011, 15:40 (time as published; timezone not given)

  71. In that same April 2011 mail Satoshi said he hoped Hearn's BitcoinJ would continue to be developed into an alternative implementation.

    Holding coins in an unspendable state for a rolling time window · 23 April 2011, 15:40 (time as published; timezone not given)

  72. The first known email was sent from the address satoshi@anonymousspeech.com.

    Citation of your Hashcash paper · 20 August 2008, 17:30 UTC

  73. Satoshi replied to Gavin Andresen on BitcoinTalk as well as in published mail, including software threads that also involved Jeff Garzik.

    Re: Content-Length header and 500 (was Re: Authentication, JSON RPC and Python) · 3 August 2010, 21:26 UTC

  74. A 7 March 2014 P2P Foundation line, "I am not Dorian Nakamoto," appears in this archive and is labelled as disputed. It is the only 2014 item, long after the last accepted messages of April 2011.

    Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency · 7 March 2014, 01:17 UTC

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