Bitcoin Museum
From the whitepaper to spot ETFs: verified milestones, famous blocks and transactions, Satoshi's own words and the early price history. Every exhibit links to its source.
Watch: the short video
English · 1 minWho Is Satoshi Nakamoto? The Creator of Bitcoin
The 2008 whitepaper, the 2009 genesis block, the first transaction to Hal Finney and why Bitcoin has no leader.
Transcript, takeaways & FAQ →Artifact: the genesis block message
Raw coinbase bytes of block 0, read from the blockchain and decoded. No third-party images: everything here is rendered from on-chain data.
04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65 732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368 616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e 6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c 6f757420666f722062616e6b73
Adam Back @adam3us
Cypherpunk and cryptographer. In 1997 he proposed Hashcash, the proof-of-work that Bitcoin mining uses. In 2008 Satoshi emailed him before publishing the whitepaper, and he pointed Satoshi to Wei Dai's b-money. In 2024 he testified in COPA v Wright.
X handle confirmed via the X API (account id 213236426, bio: “inventor hashcash”).
- 1993-03-09 · Milestone
A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
Eric Hughes, co-founder of the cypherpunks mailing list, publishes the manifesto that ends with the motto “Cypherpunks write code”.
“Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.”
via essay ↗ - 1995-03-09 · Milestone
RSA in a few lines of Perl: the “munitions” signature
Adam Back posts a tiny Perl program implementing RSA to the cypherpunks list, small enough for an email signature. US export rules then classed strong crypto as munitions; the code was printed on a T-shirt (a Commodity Jurisdiction Request for the “perl-RSA t-shirt” was posted to the list in October 1995). The rules were relaxed in 1999.
“Heres a bit of perl code which implements RSA encryption and decryption and is small enough to use for a signature”
via cypherpunks mailing list ↗ - 1997-03-28 · Milestone
Hashcash is announced
Adam Back announces “hash cash postage” on the cypherpunks list: a sender proves work by finding a partial SHA-1 collision, which is costly to make and instant to check. The idea was aimed at spam and remailer abuse. (His 2002 paper dates the proposal to May 1997.)
“The idea of using partial hashes is that they can be made arbitrarily expensive to compute (by choosing the desired number of bits of collision), and yet can be verified instantly.”
via cypherpunks mailing list, Fri 28 Mar 1997 16:52 GMT ↗ - 1998-11-27 · Milestone
Wei Dai announces b-money
On the cypherpunks list Wei Dai points to his description of b-money: money created by solving computational problems, with accounts kept by pseudonymous participants. It becomes reference [1] of the whitepaper.
“Also available there is a description of b-money, a new protocol for monetary exchange and contract enforcement for pseudonyms.”
via cypherpunks mailing list ↗ - 2002-08-01 · Milestone
Paper: “Hashcash – A Denial of Service Counter-Measure”
Adam Back collects five years of Hashcash work in one paper, dated 1 August 2002. Six years later the whitepaper cites exactly this paper as reference [6].
“The hashcash CPU cost-function computes a token which can be used as a proof-of-work.”
via paper ↗ - 2008-08-18 · Milestone
bitcoin.org is registered
The domain that would host the whitepaper and the first software is registered.
- 2008-08-20 · Milestone
Satoshi's first known email goes to Adam Back
Before publishing the whitepaper, Satoshi emails Adam Back to check the Hashcash citation and shares the draft “Electronic Cash Without a Trusted Third Party”. Back replies on 21 August that the citation looks right and points him to Wei Dai's b-money, which Satoshi had not known. The emails were first made public in the COPA v Wright trial.
“I'm getting ready to release a paper that references your Hashcash paper and I wanted to make sure I have the citation right.”
via email, published in the COPA v Wright trial ↗ - 2008-08-22 · Milestone
Satoshi writes to Wei Dai
Following Adam Back's pointer, Satoshi asks Wei Dai for the year of b-money to cite it. Wei Dai later published the emails.
“Adam Back (hashcash.org) noticed the similarities and pointed me to your site.”
via email, published by Wei Dai ↗ - 2008-10-31 · Milestone
The whitepaper
Satoshi Nakamoto posts “Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper” to 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.”
- 2008-10-31 · Milestone
The whitepaper cites Hashcash [6]
Section 4 “Proof-of-Work” of the Bitcoin whitepaper builds on Hashcash. The paper also cites Wei Dai's b-money [1], Haber & Stornetta's time-stamping [3][4][5] and Merkle [7].
“we will need to use a proof-of-work system similar to Adam Back's Hashcash [6]”
via Bitcoin whitepaper, section 4 ↗ - 2009-01-03 · Block
Genesis block (block 0)
Block 0 is timestamped 18:15:05 UTC. Its coinbase carries the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. Its 50 BTC reward can never be spent.
- 2009-01-08 · Milestone
Bitcoin v0.1 is released
Satoshi announces the first release on the Cryptography Mailing List (19:27 UTC): “Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system…”
- 2009-01-11 · Milestone
“Running bitcoin”
Hal Finney tweets two words at 03:33 UTC (10 January in California). He was the first person besides Satoshi to run the software.
“Running bitcoin”
via Twitter ↗ - 2009-01-12 · Transaction
First person-to-person transaction
Satoshi sends 10 BTC to Hal Finney in block 170 (03:30 UTC). It is the first bitcoin transaction that is not a mining reward.
- 2009-05-02 · Milestone
Bitcoin's second developer
Satoshi answers Martti Malmi (“sirius”), a Finnish student who offered to help. Malmi builds the website and FAQ, works on the Linux port and later in 2009 sets up the forums.
- 2010-05-10 · Milestone
First public GPU miner
Laszlo Hanyecz announces a working OpenCL prototype that mines on a video card, faster than his CPU.
“I have a working prototype of Bitcoin generation with OpenCL.”
via BitcoinTalk ↗ - 2010-05-22 · Transaction
Bitcoin Pizza Day
Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, the first notable purchase of physical goods with bitcoin. The payment confirmed in block 57,043. He had posted the offer on May 18.
- 2010-06-11 · Milestone
The Bitcoin Faucet
Gavin Andresen launches a website that gives away 5 BTC per visitor, stocked with 1,100 BTC, so newcomers can try Bitcoin.
- 2010-08-15 · Block
Value overflow incident
A bug let a transaction in block 74,638 create 184,467,440,737 BTC. A fixed client was released within hours, and the chain without that block overtook it. The only serious inflation bug in Bitcoin's history.
- 2010-12-12 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $0.23
Satoshi's last forum post
Satoshi announces version 0.3.19 on BitcoinTalk: “There's more work to do on DoS, but I'm doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it's needed…” No public posts follow.
- 2010-12-19 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $0.25
Gavin takes over project management
A week after Satoshi's last forum post, Gavin Andresen proposes a GitHub pull-request workflow for Bitcoin development.
“With Satoshi's blessing, and with great reluctance, I'm going to start doing more active project management for bitcoin.”
via BitcoinTalk ↗ - 2011-04-23 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $1.38
Satoshi's last known message
Replying to Mike Hearn, Satoshi says he has moved on. No later message from him is known.
“I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”
via email, published by Mike Hearn ↗ - 2012-11-28 · Block · BTC ≈ $12.5
First halving (block 210,000)
The block reward falls from 50 to 25 BTC at 15:24 UTC.
- 2014-02-28 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $583.05
Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy
The largest exchange of its time stops withdrawals and files for bankruptcy protection in Japan; about 850,000 BTC are reported missing (200,000 later found). See Hacks & losses.
- 2014-10-22 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $385.89
Pegged sidechains paper; Blockstream
Adam Back and eight co-authors publish “Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains”. On 17 November 2014 Blockstream, co-founded by Back and 10 others, announces a $21M seed round.
- 2016-07-09 · Block · BTC ≈ $663
Second halving (block 420,000)
The reward falls from 25 to 12.5 BTC at 16:46 UTC.
- 2017-08-01 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $2,862.9
Bitcoin Cash splits off
A hard fork creates Bitcoin Cash with bigger blocks; Bitcoin keeps its rules.
- 2017-08-24 · Block · BTC ≈ $4,133.67
SegWit activates (block 481,824)
Segregated Witness, a soft fork, activates. It fixes transaction malleability and opens the way to Lightning.
- 2018-09-27 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $6,459.35
Liquid sidechain goes live
Blockstream's federated sidechain Liquid produces its first block at 01:29 UTC with 23 member companies; the launch is announced on 10 October.
- 2020-05-11 · Block · BTC ≈ $8,754.46
Third halving (block 630,000)
The reward falls from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC at 19:23 UTC.
- 2021-09-07 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $52,677.4
Legal tender in El Salvador
El Salvador's Bitcoin Law takes effect, making it the first country with bitcoin as legal tender. Under a December 2024 IMF deal, mandatory acceptance by merchants was dropped.
- 2021-11-14 · Block · BTC ≈ $64,420.94
Taproot activates (block 709,632)
The Taproot soft fork activates, adding Schnorr signatures and more private, efficient scripts.
- 2024-01-10 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $46,143.31
US spot bitcoin ETFs approved
The SEC approves the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products; trading begins the next day.
- 2024-03-14 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $73,094.37
COPA v Wright: Craig Wright is not Satoshi
At the end of the trial in London, Mr Justice Mellor declares that Craig Wright is not the author of the whitepaper and not Satoshi Nakamoto; the written judgment follows on 20 May 2024. Adam Back testified in person with his previously unpublished 2008 emails from Satoshi. The judge on Back: “Again, I was entirely satisfied he was telling the truth.”
- 2024-04-20 · Block · BTC ≈ $63,823.55
Fourth halving (block 840,000)
The reward falls from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC at 00:09 UTC.
- 2025-03-06 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $90,608.57
US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
The US President signs an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded with bitcoin already forfeited to the government.
- 2026-10-23 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $84,018.76
Upcoming: Adam Back at Plan ₿ Forum, Lugano
Fireside chat “From Hashcash to Bitcoin: Adam Back's Cypherpunk Journey”, 10:30–11:00, WAGMI Stage. Read our article about the history behind it.
Satoshi in his own words
Every quote checked word for word against the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute archive. Russian is our translation.
“We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust.”
“It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.”
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work.”
“I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.”
“Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.”
“Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to.”
“If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.”
“WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
People at the origins of Bitcoin
Profiles in a social-network format: posts, life events and connections. Museum format: every post is a real, sourced quote. No likes, no invented posts; avatars are generated emblems, not photos.
Creator of Bitcoin (pseudonym), active 2008–2011
Cryptographer, first person besides Satoshi to run Bitcoin, recipient of the first transaction
Computer scientist and legal scholar; proposed bit gold and smart contracts
Cryptographer; invented blind signatures and ecash, founded DigiCash
Early developer; ran the Bitcoin Faucet, led the project after Satoshi
Bitcoin's second developer (“sirius”); set up the forum that became BitcoinTalk
Early developer; first public GPU miner; bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC
Writer and Intel scientist; founder of crypto-anarchism, co-founder of the cypherpunks
Mathematician and programmer; co-founder of the cypherpunks, author of A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
Creator of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
Co-founder of the EFF and of the cypherpunks
Cryptographer; Merkle trees, cited in the whitepaper
Inventors of cryptographic time-stamping; cited three times in the whitepaper
Early contributor, author of bitcoinj; received Satoshi's last known email
Early Bitcoin developer (from 2010); earlier a Linux kernel developer
Early Bitcoin developer; proposed CoinJoin (2013); co-founder of Blockstream (2014)
Bitcoin Core developer; author of BIP32 and co-author of SegWit, Schnorr and Taproot; Blockstream co-founder; now at Chaincode Labs
primary secondary unconfirmed Every field and post carries a source badge: primary (own post or official record), secondary (media, Wikipedia, interviews, third-party archives) or unconfirmed (one weak source, such as an X account we couldn't tie to the person). Profiles where most facts are secondary or unconfirmed are marked “Limited sources”.
Pieter Wuille and Gregory Maxwell are also in the Bitcoin Core developers list on the People page. /people →
Early price history
BTC/USD daily price from blockchain.info, first data point 2010-08-18; log scale. Before that bitcoin had no regular market price. · Now: $81,423 (Coinbase)
| First day at or above | Date | Price |
|---|---|---|
| $0.1 | 2010-09-16 | $0.15 |
| $1 | 2011-02-11 | $1.08 |
| $10 | 2011-06-03 | $11 |
| $100 | 2013-04-02 | $104 |
| $1,000 | 2013-11-29 | $1,014 |
| $10,000 | 2017-12-02 | $10,880 |
| $100,000 | 2024-12-09 | $101,180 |
| Year | Highest daily price | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $0.47 | 2010-11-08 |
| 2011 | $34 | 2011-06-11 |
| 2012 | $15 | 2012-08-18 |
| 2013 | $1,137 | 2013-12-05 |
| 2014 | $916 | 2014-01-07 |
| 2015 | $464 | 2015-12-16 |
| 2016 | $976 | 2016-12-29 |
| 2017 | $19,280 | 2017-12-17 |
Daily values are blockchain.info averages, not intraday highs. blockchain.info ↗
Every block and transaction checked via mempool.space API (height, hash, timestamp, amounts); every Satoshi quote checked word-for-word against the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute archive; other dates against the linked primary source or Wikipedia. Pre-Bitcoin and Adam Back exhibits are checked against the original mailing-list posts, papers and court documents linked on each card.