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85 lines
3.8 KiB
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---
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layout: default
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title: 'Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency'
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date: 2009-02-11 23:30:54 CET
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grand_parent: Emails
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parent: '[p2p-research]'
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nav_order: 1
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---
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# Re: Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency
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The email on the Cryptography Mailing List that announced Bitcoin publicly to the world.
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{: .fs-6 .fw-300 }
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---
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```
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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:30:54 +0000
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From: Satoshi Nakamoto <satoshin@gmx.com>
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To: p2presearch@listcultures.org
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Subject: [p2p-research] Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency
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I've developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It's
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completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties,
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because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. Give it a
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try, or take a look at the screenshots and design paper:
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Download Bitcoin v0.1 at http://www.bitcoin.org
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The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's
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required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to
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debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of
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breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and
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transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit
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bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with
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our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts.
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Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.
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A generation ago, multi-user time-sharing computer systems had a similar
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problem. Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password
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protection to secure their files, placing trust in the system
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administrator to keep their information private. Privacy could always
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be overridden by the admin based on his judgment call weighing the
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principle of privacy against other concerns, or at the behest of his
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superiors. Then strong encryption became available to the masses, and
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trust was no longer required. Data could be secured in a way that was
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physically impossible for others to access, no matter for what reason,
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no matter how good the excuse, no matter what.
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It's time we had the same thing for money. With e-currency based on
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cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman,
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money can be secure and transactions effortless.
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One of the fundamental building blocks for such a system is digital
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signatures. A digital coin contains the public key of its owner. To
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transfer it, the owner signs the coin together with the public key of
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the next owner. Anyone can check the signatures to verify the chain of
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ownership. It works well to secure ownership, but leaves one big
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problem unsolved: double-spending. Any owner could try to re-spend an
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already spent coin by signing it again to another owner. The usual
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solution is for a trusted company with a central database to check for
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double-spending, but that just gets back to the trust model. In its
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central position, the company can override the users, and the fees
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needed to support the company make micropayments impractical.
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Bitcoin's solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for
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double-spending. In a nutshell, the network works like a distributed
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timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin. It
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takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but
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hard to stifle. For details on how it works, see the design paper at
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http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
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The result is a distributed system with no single point of failure.
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Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with
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each other, with the help of the P2P network to check for double-spending.
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Satoshi Nakamoto
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http://www.bitcoin.org
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_______________________________________________
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p2presearch mailing list
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p2presearch@listcultures.org
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http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
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```
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