An old email from the founder of Bitcoin has surfaced

To this day, the true identity of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery. The few clues about him: emails and forum posts he wrote before he disappeared in 2011. One that recently came to light e-mail It now reveals more about Bitcoin’s previously unknown origins. It is the oldest known document from the founder of Bitcoin. Letter dated 22 August 2008 to Wei Dai.

For his part, Dai has been working on a digital cash system called “b-money” since 1998. It appears that Satoshi was inspired by this, which the email also confirms. In this, the founder of Bitcoin requests the publication date of the b-money page so that he can quote it in his soon-to-be-published work. A few months later, on October 31, 2008, he published his Bitcoin white paper. He added the first draft of it to an email to Day.

Similarities with b money

Hashcash founder Adam Back recognized the similarities in the work of Satoshi and Dai. He brought the founder of Bitcoin to b-money, the email said. Satoshi was “very interested” in Dai’s project and said he was about to publish a “white paper.” [Dais] “Expands ideas and turns them into an effective system.” The title of his post will be: “Electronic money, without a trusted third party.”

The following introduction remained until the final release Bitcoin white papers until. Dai’s work is also the first source in the bibliography (which Satoshi did not arrange alphabetically as is academic practice). The email shows that the Bitcoin founder apparently learned a lot from his colleagues and continued to find inspiration in the work of other crypto designers until the end.

He in turn encouraged Day to download an early version of his white paper, which is a testament to the open source doctrine. Accordingly, everyone who might still be interested should be aware of the idea and be able to contribute. While Bitcoin itself may be one person’s idea, the concept behind it is collective progress.