Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

im actually searching for the very first version of the white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, on Cryptography Mailing List.

The actual one, available everywhere is edited (from 2009) and give a weird Chinese code when open with a txt editor.

Chinese code? I don't think you should be opening PDFs with text editors...

Go here: https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/ download a translated pdf of the white paper and try to open it with notepad.
After that, do the same with english version and you will found a very different code, only in Chinese (no english or Japanese).

According to bitcoin.org, the original whitepaper is the English one. You can check it here:

https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper

There are many translated versions, this Chinese one will work.

I know the english one is the first. What im asking for is the original, created in 2008, version of the white paper. All the version i found online are from 2009 (what's written in the metadata).

Translated version aren't inportant. I talk about them because of the way the files are actually encoded. If im not clear, try to open the English version with notepad and you will understand.

This forum was not the first place where Satoshi posted but this site ---> P2P Foundation page.
you can find it here ----> http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source.

Almost this is the first version, but the ones on Bitcoin.org's website are supported by the community.

In terms of translation, translation of terms deducts many meanings.

An older version from the newsletter exist : https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-October/014810.html as you can see, one version was available in october 31, 2008. Maybe there is another one, older, from the time only Hal Finney and another guy was interested in satoshi's work.

If im not clear enough, translation are just here for the example. I don't need them, and what is written inside too. Im interested by the STRUCTURE of the file. I want to know if the white paper 2009 version is bugged or if it's hidding something.

To be sure eveybody understand me, i will post a picture: actual BTC White Paper / random PDF (and 99% of other pdf look like that).
https://i.ibb.co/sW2127C/bug.jpg

Not sure if this can help. Take a look at  What satoshi wrote? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5141127.msg50978833#msg50978833). Within the thread, @Heisenberg_Hunter references a draft called ecash.pdf which I managed to find at the time:

When @DdmrDdmr was able to provide us with a link to the ecash.pdf file (which was thought to be lost) I was able to download it and have a secure copy of that in my HDD. We can never be quite sure the ecash.pdf which was a monumental piece in the crypto history would always be present in the internet. Many thought the paper was lost somewhere in the PC's of early adopters. It is quite interesting to note that Bitcoin was never named so, it was initially called ecash / Electronic Cash.

You can see that in the older ecash paper, satoshi in 6. Incentive said that if the current hardware (CPU at 2008) was replaced by some superior faster hardware and if the block generation speed rises over time it would further rise the difficulty exponentially. These lines were moved on-to 4. Proof of Work in the newer bitcoin paper. Aside, I am quite sure you won't be finding a paper older than ecash and its interesting to note that they are the foundation for today's multi-billion dollar crypto industry.

@DdmrDdmr : thx for your answer. One cool guy on twitter sent me a copy of this ecash.pdf. Unfortunatly, this document isn't the exact copy of the original mailed to Hal Finney. I can read in the metadata the file was created in 2017 (probably a copy/past).  :-\

@Heisenberg_Hunter : Yes, that's funny to think only 2 guys (Hal was one of them) was giving Satochi's project credits at the time. And that's ALWAYS the same with all the success stories: Apple, etc.

This ecash.pdf file is amazing, I didn't know it.

Sadly I can confirm that it was made in 2017, just like you said. So it is not the original, and we have no proof that it was a copy past or some modifications were made.

I will try to search more about it. Very interesting.

Suggestion: move this topic to development and technical discussion. It is where you will find more knowledge members who can contribute better to this discussion, which is quite relevant.

From a historical point of view, the "ecash.pdf" file is older than the "bitcoin.pdf".

Actually, we can't be sure of the text inside. Because this is not an original.

BUT!!! I have a good new. I found a october 3, 2008 version! The one i was searching for! (but an original ecash.pdf can be older)

HERE is the rare 2008 version : https://www.gwern.net/docs/bitcoin/20081003-nakamoto-bitcoindraft.pdf

After a quick study, i can tell u there is small but existing differences in the text, between 2008 and 2009 documents.

And in the structure, 2008 pdf was created on a UNIX system, and the 2009, on a Mac. Interesting!

You really found something interesting.

I am going to ask you again to move this to a less spammy board, as there is something clearly wrong here.

For now, we have 3 whitepapers:

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (newer file, from 2009)
https://www.gwern.net/docs/bitcoin/20081003-nakamoto-bitcoindraft.pdf (2008 original Whitepaper)
https://draftable.com/compare/rCuIgdwzImUI (presumed edited ecash whitepaper from 2017)

2 main questions remains:
-Where is the original Ecash file from 2008?
-What is written in Chinese when we open the 2009 Whitepaper from bitcoin.org in Notepad?

I tried to translate it using google translator, but it seems that it doens't make sense, as Google refuses to translate it.

This is just a small sentence that I put on google translator:
(倥䙄ㄭ㐮┊꓃볃뛃鿃㈊〠漠橢㰊⼼敌杮桴㌠〠删䘯汩整⽲汆瑡䑥捥摯㹥ਾ瑳敲浡砊궜䭜⒋ᆹ쾾ꢯꆳ⧚┩䉥큓叕慭߀鯣ڽట诞뻿씥剛댚嶐ꖛ⡇询檷㞖ﭷ럏��⥽錟ﳺ㾷꿶时羷筼ﳾ싦᛺楮��뿏ﻝ쏸峝......)

This is what google translates:
Ignorant 䙄 ㄭ 㐮 ┊꓃ 볃뛃 鿃㈊〠 desert oval 㰊 Center Weighted enemy Fei rafter ㌠〠 delete 䘯 confused the whole ⽲ boil 䑥 Wan Shi Zhi 㹥 ਾ Cuoqiaobokang 궜 䭜 ⒋ ᆹ쾾 ꢯꆳ⧚┩ 䉥 큓 Li  wrongful ߀ Yi ڽ ట when birth 뻿씥 just  댚 Long ꖛ⡇ inquiry 檷 㞖 ڃ 럏 ⥽ tan غي 㾷  꿶  Lian Chu Tradesmen شي 싦 ᛺ 뿏 ل 쏸 Tong


Something is wrong with that file, and it really looks like something may be hidden inside it.

I did a request to move this topic, but no answer.

For the ecash original file, we know Hal got it, and one or two other guys. I don't remember their name at the moment.

For the chinese text, look like an old one. The kind of text written a thousand year ago, or more. And i think Google can't translate old Chinese correctly.

Chineses, are and was great traders... Maybe there is something linked with that.

Still "Finding Satoshi" then ...
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5165538.0

Who is Blondie Wong ?

...

Finally!

The day of the 12th Genesis block Birthday, I received my holy grail by email : a copy of the missing Ecash white paper!

To be honest, I don't know if I can trust 100% this is the real one, but it looks Legit.

https://easy-bitcoin.io/whitepaper/

If you are a metadata specialist, please let me know if there is anything wrong with this document.

I'm by far not a "metadata specialist", but I know a little bit about files. And I can tell you that anything from a file can be changed, including the metadata.
If the file would be protected by a checksum or anything, then the checksum can be edited too, but here it's not the case.

I've also done a quick experiment. I've opened the file as text in Notepad++ (I was too lazy to install a hex editor), edited line 15 (creationdate) and changed it to 2001. And saved it. My pdf viewer (FoxitReader) opened just fine the modified file and now the creation date is in 2001.

Conclusion: you cannot trust that and in fact you are chasing for something that cannot be tested from the metadata to be truly genuine.

I’ve looked around and used a couple of free online pdf metadata viewers (such as https://www.metadata2go.com/result/0f1debec-42b9-4961-859d-11068eb4909d), but there’s nothing that’s really going to assert that it was not modified. Searching around, there are quite a few Metadata editors, so I can’t see any way to attest that the file has not been manipulated just based on the Metadata.

I agree. I think it is impossible to identify a document modifications unless there is an original CRC32 checksum for comparison.

Seems this is not an original...  :'(

https://twitter.com/wizsecurity/status/1345801257340919808

I would like to BTCump this topic regarding the hunt behind this ecash.pdf mysterious version. @DdmrDdmr pointed out to a site which hosted a comparable copy of ecash.pdf here : https://draftable.com/compare/rCuIgdwzImUI but what I found out is that whichever paper referencing itself as ecash.pdf should have less than 8 references in Page 8 as said in gwern!

As per satoshi's first published email :


So based upon this scenario, it seems like Satoshi contacted Wei Dai to get the year of publication and thereby presented his paper! So going by this, W.Dai's b-money should not have been referenced in ecash.pdf hence what we found seems to be a highly modified version and thereby should not be trusted upon as said in the gwern website. I hope this wasn't addressed in our previous topic discussions and I firmly believe this ecash.pdf to be a lost collectible forever in this digital era!

Or is there any other way to hunt this down? I think, it is one among the important pdf for the future generations to come.

Today marks 14 years since the publication of the white paper, and if you read this topic, you will understand why I brought it up.

Very interesting topic.

Here's a summary of all the early drafts of the bitcoin paper known so far: https://www.gwern.net/docs/bitcoin/2008-nakamoto

I think that contains all the details relevant to this discussion.

I wonder if people have searched in the blockchain itself. The 2009 white paper lives there (https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/35959/how-is-the-whitepaper-decoded-from-the-blockchain-tx-with-1000x-m-of-n-multisi/35970).

You can get it like this:


The idea that there's something hidden in the paper makes it really interesting, although I don't think there's anything in there...

About the "Chinese characters" in the original Bitcoin paper, I think that could just be Notepad interpreting the pdf data as random Chinese symbols as default. You don't see that in Linux for example, and that might explain why the text itself is nonsense. Also, you're comparing a pdf made with v1.7 with one made with v1.4 (bitcoin.pdf) so there might be big differences in the structure of the pdf files, which might explain what you see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_PDF

Here are a few metadata details about the discussed files:




Also ecash.pdf reveals the use of a library that allows editing metadata, Adobe XMP (https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-64/assets/administer/xmp.html?lang=en):


With that tool you can edit any metadata in a file, so it can't really be trusted at all as genuine. Maybe it is, but it's not possible to know anything else has changed. Also the pdf property linearized was set to No in the early drafts but set as Yes in ecash.pdf. It might be that they forgot to match that field.

Also, if we focus on the pdf version, we can see that ecash.pdf was probably created in another computer, or application, which used a more modern version of the pdf standard (v1.6 vs v1.4). It's really strange to see that the file was supposedly created with the same version of Open Office, v2.4, but the pdf version of the created file doesn't match. A quick search on the source code of Open Office 2.4 shows that they indeed use pdf v1.4 in that version of the software: