Bitcoin whitepaper

The Bitcoin whitepaper is a nine-page document published in October 2008 by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. 

With just 3,200 words and seven diagrams filling up eight-and-a-half pages, it is by far the most influential publication in crypto and is seen by many as the movement’s founding document.

Further reading: What is Bitcoin (BTC)? A beginner's guide to Bitcoin

Required reading

Most other whitepapers, which outline a crypto project’s vision and technical details, are too complex for the average person. 

While the Bitcoin whitepaper gets quite technical in some sections, the document as a whole is remarkably readable–so readable, in fact, that many recommend it as a starting point for understanding blockchain.

Solving the “double spend” problem

While there are many ideas put forward in the Bitcoin whitepaper, they all revolve around solving double spending: the digital equivalent of spending counterfeit money. 

Before Bitcoin, online payments absolutely had to go through a trusted financial institution. If they didn’t, then people could cheat the system and spend a single unit of money more than once. Third-party financial institutions thus policed transactions to ensure this didn’t occur. 

The Bitcoin whitepaper proposed a way to get around this double spending problem by creating a digital currency (Bitcoin) so secure that it doesn’t need third-parties to police it. It would be an “electronic cash” that is purely “peer-to-peer” (hence the full title of the Bitcoin whitepaper: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System).   

Further reading: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

Things you should know

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