Bitcoin Whitepaper (Origins)
The Bitcoin whitepaper is a nine-page paper published in 2008 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto describing a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
In depth
It solved a decades-old computer science problem: how strangers can agree on who owns what without a trusted middleman. The paper combined existing ideas — digital signatures, hash-linked timestamps and proof of work — into one working design. The network launched in January 2009 with the mining of the genesis block.
Why it matters
Nearly every cryptocurrency since is either a variation on, or a reaction to, the ideas in this paper.