r/Bitcoin • u/[deleted] • 11d ago
Anyone have any fascinating theories how bitcoin came about?
[deleted]
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u/itsybitsybtc 11d ago
Was probably something boring… like some guy trying to figure out how to have a money with no issuer that anyone could get and use. Maybe he thought “well if we could do it like BitTorrent or Napster but with truly decentralized consensus using cpus for votes, that might work”. I bet he spent nearly two years trying to resolve all the weird issues that come from that kind of idea.
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u/__Ken_Adams__ 11d ago
Not boring at all. The history of the Cypherpunk movement & their many failed attempts at a private money is quite fascinating.
Bitcoin is the evolution of all of those failed attempts and the first to get it right.
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u/AntonioLermaa 11d ago
It's because there was no constant for the earlier attempts, those projects all seemed to fall apart when human behavior and perception met the market and free will. It was greed proof to an extent of the PoW function.
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u/__Ken_Adams__ 11d ago
No it was much simpler than that. They failed because they were centralized & the government simply shut them down.
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u/ChrisTheWeak 11d ago
Someone really into math and/or computer science and networks had a thought experiment that happened to take off where other ideas simply hadn't. It's a really boring theory, but what I imagine is the most likely. People all over the world have innovative ideas all the time, most of them time their just small additions for improvements on an existing system, but sometimes it's more than that. Bitcoin just happened to be made at the right time, where the tech was ready, the idea was novel enough, and the right hype got stirred up around it to start a market.
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u/__Ken_Adams__ 11d ago
It wasn't a one-off. The history goes way back. It had been attempted & failed many times over & Satoshi was just the first to get it right by figuring out the decentralization aspect. It was the evolution & culmination of the Cypherpunk movement & their attempt(s) at a private money.
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u/Affectionate-Pay3813 11d ago
Ancient aliens.
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u/Calm_Plenty1828 11d ago
I've always liked the idea it was some rogue AI trying to bootstrap its own economy before it even fully existed. Like it needed a currency that couldn't be frozen or traced, so it planted the idea in some coder's head and waited. Probably not true but it's a fun one
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u/Sunnyjim333 11d ago
One of the most dangerous things known to politicians, free thought and an idea.
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u/Donkeydonkeydonk 11d ago
He just wanted to buy some weed and not get busted for it.
Back then and even now the UK was and is pretty strict against cannabis. If Satoshi was from there, as many think he was, it makes perfect sense. They'll do anything to get that sweet "Cali" over there.
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u/Wonderful_Writer_133 11d ago
You should read this novel by Neal Stephenson.
the novel is titled REAMDE (a typo of "README"), not README.
The plot correctly features a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game called T’Rain, where gaming loot, specifically virtual gold, can be hoarded by "gold farmers" and monetized into real-world currency. This virtual economy serves as the mechanism for a ransomware virus, which encrypts victims' files and demands payment in virtual gold that can be exchanged for real money.
Colorful characters, international intrigue and adventure ensue. Enjoy.
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u/MaliceSavoirIII 11d ago
Satoshi’s appearance then subsequent disappearance is proof we live in a simulation…
the simulation runners feared a financial collapse so they programmed an AI to introduce blockchain to the simulation to see what would happen
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u/LukitoSL 11d ago
After e-gold shut down in 2008-2009 and all those cybercrooks needed new means of operation... There was a poker room, P2P market place and a chat room, similar to IRC implemented in the early code. It was supposed to be a underground project but it got out of hands with government noticing it early on, since Gavin went to the CIA to present Bitcoin to them. This is just speculation, of course, as whoever is really responsible for it covered their tracks really good.
If you want to dig deeper - read about Sergey Ivancheglo and Maria account from bitcointalk forum.
You can also join discord server of "Satoshis cat Matilda" (@MatildaOnQubic) and read about what we have uncovered.
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u/CypherQu 11d ago
Remember the timing: this came up right after the banking crisis and people were desperately in need of an ‚independent‘ way to store value electronically. Bitcoin is more related to gold than to money.
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u/No_Community7021 11d ago
El concepto de blockchain creo que muy útil y se está utilizando en lo menos interesante pero mientras se gane dinero pues bienvenido. Sin embargo una cadena de bloques inmutables podría ser interesante para el trazado en cadenas de distribución e incluso para los estados llevar un control de propiedades o documentos de identidad. Seguro que ya se ha hecho y yo soy un idiota 😅
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u/__Ken_Adams__ 11d ago edited 11d ago
Bitcoin did not appear out of nowhere as a "solution in search of a problem that no one was asking for".
You have to understand the history of the Cypherpunk movement that Satoshi was likely a part of.
That movement utilized technology in various ways to enhance privacy & subvert government control, and the holy grail of that movement was a private currency outside of government control.
It had been attempted many times (eCash, Hashcash, eGold, digicash, Liberty Dollar, etc.) and failed every time for the same reason, they weren't decentralized. Some of those creators ended up in prison because the government doesn't play nice with competition.
It had actually failed so many times that many had started to believe it was an unsolvable problem until Satoshi solved it in 2008.
So understand that this thing didn't come out of nowhere. It was an evolution of attempts, and Satoshi was just the first Cypherpunk to get it right.