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31 October 2008 and 3 January 2009.
The two dates were cemented with the Promethean meaning in the Bitcoin tradition. On October 31, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper, a kind of constitution for his revolutionary monetary system and its intrinsic currency.
On January 3, this constitution came alive with Bitcoin Block # 0. Also known as genesis block of the network, this cornerstone would provide the foundation for an ecosystem that would challenge our perception of how money is valued and managed in a & # 39; it was digital.
Ten years later, we celebrate the birth of the Bitcoin network as if we were a nation. If the white paper is a declaration of monetary independence, then the genesis block is our day of independence and the foundation of a new system. With the bootstrap of the network, Satoshi has opened a new form of money: decentralized digital money, based on algorithms and completely peer-to-peer for a digital era.
For what is actually the genesis block, there is little to say. The first block on the network includes a single transaction: the reward of the 50 BTC block sent to Satoshi for extraction (which, together with its other mining prizes, has not yet touched). It has all the details of a regular block; in addition to being the first, there is little to distinguish from the rest, except for the unique data it hosts.
With the launch of January 3, Satoshi's Intentions Are Clear
Rather than focusing on what is the genesis block, today is a day to reflect on what the genesis block represents.
The genesis block, of all rights, is emblematic of monetary sovereignty. It is the digital incarnation of Satoshi's monetary philosophy, a rejection of the centralized policies of the fiat system in favor of the decentralized processes of a cryptographically protected and mathematically verifiable digital system. Satoshi believed that the old way did not work, so he built a new one without all the controls and risks that can lead to the devaluation of legal currencies with reckless printing practices.
Its intent is hidden in the genesis block, although the meaning of this message is clear. Incorporated in the hexadecimal code on the basis of coins of the genesis block, the message, after being decoded, reads as follows: "The Chancellor of the Times 03 / Jan / 2009 on the edge of the second bailout for the banks".
The message is a direct allusion to the title of The Times, the day Bitcoin was launched. While the details of the article, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the U.K. at the moment, he was discussing a second bailout for British banks. This capital infusion would come nearly a year after the government blushed the banks themselves in an attempt to undermine the flow of credit and hinder the imminent economic crisis, which the United States has done for its banks. 39; October 2008.
The rest is obviously history.
2009 would begin with the climate meltdown of the global economy. The fractional reserve loan, the uncollectable debt and a mortgage crisis would precipitate world economic dominoes in the worst international crisis since the Great Depression some 80 years earlier.
That the genesis block was founded on the same day as the news of an imminent bank bailout is certainly symbolic. The early writings of Satoshi show that he was well prepared in the monetary policy of the central bank and in the alleged risks of a fiat-based economy. He saw the central banking practices that led to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the joint nature of federal governments and national / private banks, as a risk for both customer confidence and currency valuation.
"The main problem with conventional currency is all the confidence needed to make it work.The central bank must be trusted not to degrade the currency, but the history of the legal currencies is full of violations of such confidence.The banks must be trusted to keep our money and transfer it electronically, but lend them in waves of credit bubbles with just a fraction of the reserve, we must trust them with our privacy, trusting them not to allow identity thieves to empty our accounts, "he writes in a post on the February 2009 forum.
This post arrived just over a month after Satoshi started the network, but he discussed the implications of his creation in relation to modern banking practices before Bitcoin's blockchain was published.
On the day he published the white paper, Satoshi sent his work to the Cryptography mailing list. His work was feverishly engaged by a handful of recipients, including the Google engineer and the later Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn.
In the thread, interspersed with constructive criticisms of potential design flaws of Bitcoin, recipients compare notes and observations on legacy banking practices. Naturally, they also philosophize about how Bitcoin fits into the broader picture, with a commentator, James A. Donald, who postulates that decentralized issuance could protect the economy from overbearing governments, although it also warns that power and influence of these governments should not be fired.
"If a small number of entities issue new coins, this is more resistant to the state attack [than] with a single issuer, but the government regularly attacks the financial networks, with the financial collapse resulting from the most recent attack still in progress [sic] as I write this
"… at the end of the nineteenth century began political attacks on the financial networks, such as the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the goal was always to close the network in a single entity too big to fail, and they have been progressively bigger, more serious and more disastrous, like the most recent. "
"Too big to fail" became a popular mantra of governments when they justified their bailout decisions of large banks during the credit crisis. The system justified resuscitation only because it is monolithic in scale and too entwined in the socio-economic political arena to let it falter.
A reminder of why we are here
There is a topic to be argued that the governmental interventionism, along with the artificial lowering of interest rates and the quantitative easing that the Federal Reserve has made to "revive" the. economy, made the crisis worse (probably Satoshi). And since the longest bullish market in US history since the Great Depression is expected to reach its end, some analysts have argued that the catalyst of another looming crisis has taken root from the same practices that have stimulated crash of 2008-2009.
Once again, the launch of Bitcoin coincides with the worst global financial crisis, since the Great Depression is not a coincidence. The currency and its network were born of the Great Recession and represent the monetary antithesis of the questionable banking practices that prompted the crisis.
Banks have been saved on behalf of governments with whom they share a symbiotic relationship. These banks and their accountants were insured with taxpayers' money and protected because they were "too big to fail". Meanwhile, the average citizen languished in an anemic economic climate without gains.
The symbolic genesis of Satoshi's new economic system, as well as the hidden message that bears witness to his vision, seem to say: "For the rest of us, 99 percent, here is our way out – here is our rescue plan."
So, as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of Bitcoin and the foundation of the genesis block, let's not forget the intent behind Block # 0. It's not just the first block on the network. It is the beginning of a completely new monetary system, separate from the central controls and the embezzlement of our current system. It is Satoshi who offers us an alternative. It is the solution to a problem introduced when the fiat currencies have undercut the gold standard.
It is revolutionary, it is for the people and is the key to our economic freedom.
The price is good, but let's not forget why we are here.
Happy tenth anniversary!
