Sixteen years in the past right this moment, one thing really groundbreaking occurred—and nobody observed. Block #0, otherwhise referred to as “Genesis Block” of the Bitcoin network was created. On the identical time, the phrase “on the brink” turned an immutable a part of Bitcoin’s historical past, and one way or the other, it nonetheless feels acceptable in 2025.
It’s outstanding to think about how low-key this occasion will need to have felt on the time. Maybe Satoshi Nakamoto himself felt one thing shift as he hit ENTER to run his program; perhaps there was a way of impending momentum and alter, like a glitch within the Matrix. Or perhaps he simply stared silently at a display screen because the code started to execute and proof of work (PoW) on the mining machine/s kicked in. Both approach, the world went on about its enterprise as regular that day in January 2009, and the total results of Bitcoin wouldn’t be felt for a very long time.
Arguably, we haven’t even felt the total results now, over a decade and a half after that second. There’s now roughly $3 trillion value of market cap using on the networks that started with Satoshi’s push of a button. We are saying “networks” since there are actually at the least three separate blockchains that may trace their lineage again to that second on January 3, 2009. That whole market cap is simply the worth of “Bitcoins” themselves. Certainly, the value Bitcoin has since created in jobs, companies, hype, and even authorized drama is far larger than that determine.
We also needs to add the collective valuations of coin costs and economies in all different non-Bitcoin blockchains as nicely, as a result of with out Bitcoin, it’s uncertain that any of them would have existed. No Ethereum, no Solana, no Litecoin or DOGE.
And but, there’s nonetheless just one “unique Bitcoin.” BSV, aka “Bitcoin Satoshi Imaginative and prescient,” has that identify as a result of it’s the one blockchain with Genesis Block heritage that also follows the principles Satoshi Nakamoto set for his community protocol when it started. A posh transaction that was included into the Bitcoin community in 2009 continues to be legitimate on BSV right this moment. BSV has unbounded scaling with no restrict on how giant its transaction blocks might be or how a lot knowledge a consumer can embrace in every transaction. Any info recorded on the blockchain is timestamped, immutable, and verifiable. Scaling utterly on-chain, BSV nonetheless chugs away 16 years later with just a few minor hiccups.
In January 2009, there was no such factor as a Bitcoin “ticker image,” and you may mine lots of of cash with out making a single cent. There was no BTC, BSV, or BCH at that second, and nobody would purchase one from you at any value.
Timestamps and instances of disaster
Satoshi, nonetheless, had at the least an inkling that Bitcoin was one thing essential on the time. It was in all probability excess of an inkling. In keeping with Bitcoin lore, the Genesis Block wanted to be constructed (i.e., hard-coded) to kick issues off. It wasn’t “mined” by PoW like each different block on the Bitcoin community since. However to behave as an anchor for the community and its transaction database report, it nonetheless wanted a stamp to show it existed at a sure second in time.
For that timestamp, Satoshi selected to embed a headline from The Occasions on the day Bitcoin started. “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” was the headline, and regardless of claims the headline was chosen virtually randomly, it additionally kicked off a sentiment that will outline Bitcoin’s tradition: it represented a brand new approach of finance and the federal government’s position in it.
January 2009 was smack in the midst of what we now name the “International Monetary Disaster,” when it appeared just like the world’s total monetary system was in peril of collapsing. The (U.Ok.) Chancellor’s plan to bail out giant monetary establishments for a second time indicated that governments not solely had been ready to make use of public funds to avoid wasting the prevailing system however there was diminishing confidence that their actions would even work.
Sixteen years later, and it’s nonetheless unclear whether or not these bailouts “labored” or not. The world could not face an imminent financial collapse (perhaps!), nevertheless it could possibly be getting ready to one thing far worse. In 2009, the monetary system confronted an absence of belief. In 2024, it’s the world order itself. In France, Germany, the UK, the USA, and a handful of smaller nations, the governments themselves imploded—in some instances by electoral defeat and in others by no-confidence motions.
On the identical time, there are at the least three geopolitical flashpoints with the potential to kick off the subsequent World War, and among the main gamers appear hell-bent on making that occur. Fact and actuality have change into subjective experiences moderately than one thing anybody can confirm. On this surroundings, purveyors of propaganda, misinformation, and “narratives” are having a ball.
Bitcoin celebrates the sixteenth anniversary of its Genesis Block with a renewed mission to avoid wasting the world. And this time, it’s not simply cash however all the knowledge people can report. That’s a tricky problem. Bitcoin alone can’t remedy these issues however, on the very least, if the world can rediscover the significance of reality, we will use it as a software to repair the mess we’re in. That’s not unhealthy for one thing that began with the press of an ENTER key on a keyboard.
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