Whitepaper (Bitcoin whitepaper)

The Bitcoin whitepaper’s full title is ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’. Satoshi NakamotoGlossarySatoshi NakamotoPseudonym of the person or group who invented Bitcoin. Satoshi published the whitepaper in 2008, launched the network in 2009 and withdrew in 2011. Who is behind the name remains unknown to this day.In the glossary →× presented it on a cryptography mailing list on 31 October 2008.^[3] It has nine pages and is still the most important primary source for how Bitcoin was conceived.

What it’s about

Digital data can be copied – so someone could spend the same money twice (double spending). Until then, banks prevented this by acting as trusted intermediaries. Instead, the whitepaper relies on a peer-to-peerGlossaryPeer-to-peer (P2P)‘Between equals’: participants exchange data or money directly with one another, without a central intermediary. In Bitcoin, nodes pass transactions and blocks directly to each other.On the learning path: Stage 1 · Step 3 – How does Bitcoin work? →In the glossary →× network that records all payments in a shared, time-ordered chain. It is secured by proof of workGlossaryProof of workThe method by which miners prove that they have done real computing work for a new block. It lets the network agree on the valid chain without a central authority, and makes rewriting old blocks extremely expensive.On the learning path: Stage 1 · Step 3 – How does Bitcoin work? →In the glossary →×: the chain with the most computing work behind it counts.

Its twelve short sections cover transactions, timestamps, the network, incentives for miners, privacy and the probability of a successful attack, among other things.^[1],[2]

What it doesn’t say

The whitepaper doesn’t mention the cap of 21 million BTCGlossary21 million (Bitcoin’s supply cap)Under the network’s rules, there will never be more than just under 21 million bitcoin. The cap follows from the issuance schedule: new bitcoin per block halve every 210,000 blocks until none are created, around 2140.On the learning path: Stage 2 · Step 2 – Halving & 21 million →In the glossary →×. It only says that once a predetermined number of coins is in circulation, miners can be paid entirely through fees and no new coins are created.^[1] The specific figure only comes from the program code.

Read it yourself

The original is in English; bitcoin.org also offers translations, German among them.^[2] Some sections are mathematical, the rest is easy to follow. Section by section: The Bitcoin whitepaper explained.