When do you consider Bitcoin to be 10 years old?

[kryptqnick]

Depending on who you ask, Bitcoin is either 9 or 10 years old right now.  It seems like we can't collectively decide which date is the right one to recognise as the official "birthday".  Which date do you think is most the appropriate one to celebrate?  Or do we celebrate all three equally?  

• The bitcoin.org domain name was registered on 18th August 2008.
• Satoshi's whitepaper was published on 31st October 2008.
• The Genesis Block was mined on 3rd January 2009.

Like the majority, I would go for the first block option. Bitcoin.org domain doesn't sound like anything important at all, whitepaper is like impregnation (oh, Brewmaster said it already) and mining a block is birth. Thus, bitcoin is not 10 years old yet and 2019 has chances to give us some adequate prices and the market that is not full of panic sellers. The reason for this is that the whitepaper is barely a theoretical document which gives nothing but hope that the actual thing will eventually be created. When the first block is mined, it creates something that never existed before and can then grow into something bigger and actually usable.

[franky1]

conception date: before august 2008
pregnancy test confirmation date: august 2008 (domain registration)
first ultrasound: october 2008 (white paper)
birth date: january 2009 (code release)

10th birthday january 2019

[shivansps]

From my personal point of view, Bitcoin birthday is the first block mined on January. I don't know why people think the Birthday of bitcoin is considered to be Satoshi whitepaper. It was only his thoughts, research and functionality explanation written there. Bitcoin has not been physically existing until January 3rd.

[pixie85]

It looks like most people agree that the genesis block is the most important date in Bitcoin's history. I wish I knew about Bitcoin when it happened. Let's hope the child goes through puberty and we'll celebrate its 20th birthday with a blast.

[LoyceV]

I'm glad to see my vote is part of the majority: The Genesis Block was the birth of Bitcoin.

Although nobody voted for the registration date of bitcoin.org, I'll add an argument against it: a domain registration can simply be ended. If bitcoin.org disappears (or starts selling car parts), that doesn't mean Bitcoin ends. Satoshi's whitepaper will never disappear, and neither will the Genesis Block.

Can we be confident in saying that the mining of the genesis block was a considered event?

In retrospect: yes! It makes perfect sense that not all historical events had a large impact the moment they occurred. Think about great inventions like steam engines, steel, electricity or transistors: it took a while before it become common.
Now let's see if Bitcoin can become mainstream in the next 10-20 years!

[DooMAD]

It's reassuring to see that even though the media don't seem to understand the difference, most people here do.  I'll lock this one down now since there's probably now much else to discuss.  I just thought it odd lots of places online were suddenly saying Bitcoin is 10 years old when it isn't quite there yet.