Revolutionary 9 Page Bitcoin Whitepaper Turns 11 Today

Exactly 11 years ago a Cryptography Mailing List received an e-mail on October 31, 2008, at 6:10 pm UTC from a mysterious sender. It proposed a fully peer-to-peer new electronic cash system with no trusted third party. And this was the first time Bitcoin made a public appearance.  

Bitcoin spread globally. But its creator “Satoshi Nakamoto” continues to be a mystery.

Source: SatoshiNakamotoinstitute.org

What did the Bitcoin whitepaper promise?

The Bitcoin whitepaper promised a purely peer-to-peer electronic cash system without any centralized financial system in the backend. It immediately caught the attention of the technocrats. Especially the ones who suffered through the global financial crisis and Lehman Brothers collapse.

It was indeed revolutionary, with the following key offerings:

  • Prevention of double-spending
  • Anonymous participants
  • Proof-of-work consensus to generate new coins
  • No trusted parties

This was the complete picture of a sovereign digital currency.

Has the promise been kept?

After 11 years and 325978905% price appreciation, BTC has evolved. But critics believe it is yet to fulfill its first promised use case.

There are no doubts that bitcoin is a peer-to-peer set up that circumvents all the traditional third parties. However, some question whether it is “electronic cash.” Critics say it is yet to become stable like cash and our everyday systems are yet to accept BTCs. The user experience is still plagued with pain and confusion.

All in all, they say Bitcoin needs to evolve more to become a mainstream thing.

Harsh criticism

Bitcoin has been receiving serious bashing since it hyped. In 2018, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman, Charles Munger compared BTC to organ trading. And labeled it as “anti-social,” “stupid,” “immoral,” and a “turd.” Recently, gold-pro investor Peter Schiff called it a pump and dump scheme.

In spite of all this, BTC is finding a stronger ground in emerging economies where the financial system is severely flawed.

Futuristic doubts

Bitcoin’s limited supply of 21 million makes it a deflationary currency. But there is still some doubt what will happen to the bitcoin economy once the last BTC is mined. After all,  BTC will start functioning as a closed economy. And the miners will keep participating in the transaction validation.  They would also pocket the transaction fees just as the government receives the taxes.

Whatever the minimalists say, Bitcoin has always roared back. In the last week, its price has shown impressive gains of over 40%. Additionally, prominent cryptocurrency analyst Nigel Green believes bitcoin will exhibit rapid gains in the next 2 months. And it would cross $12,000 before the 2019 ball drop.

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