BITCOIN.
BEYOND
THE PRICE.
The people. The code. The moments that changed money. Explore Bitcoin from the genesis block to the ideas behind the network—backed by the original sources.
The genesis block
January 3, 2009 · Explore the first block
Your next rabbit hole.
Nine pages. A new possibility.
A nine-page proposal, announced on October 31, 2008, set out a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
Read the storyTwo pizzas. One small experiment.
In May 2010, a public forum offer turned 10,000 bitcoin into two pizzas—and left a record anyone can read.
Read the storyVerify it for yourself.
Independent validation is the important part. Keeping every historical block forever is optional.
Read the storyThe minds behind Bitcoin.
You don’t need to be
a cryptographer.
Start with the big picture. Build an understanding of keys, blocks, mining, and the network—one clear explanation at a time.
Find your starting pointKeep going down the rabbit hole.
The March 2013 Chain Split
A database compatibility problem caused Bitcoin software versions to disagree about a block at height 225,430.
2 linked sources ↗learn / 2 min readRecovery Phrases and Wallet Backups
How mnemonic words relate to wallet keys, why passphrases matter, and why some recoveries need additional information.
4 linked sources ↗people / 2 min readPieter Wuille
A contributor whose published work includes hierarchical wallets, SegWit, Taproot, and output descriptors.
4 linked sources ↗History is better with the receipts.
The white paper. The forum posts. The code. Follow the references behind the stories and explore the record yourself.
Open the source library