Weird note by satoshi on unreleased Bitcoin 2008 version

[takuma sato]

I was looking at the (I think) earliest ever code found for Bitcoin in a version that was privately shared amongst some people, and in main.ccp, looking at the comments, every function seems explained in a straight forward way, but this one seems strange:

   // Add atoms to user reviews for coins created
    vector<unsigned char> vchPubKey;
    if (ExtractPubKey(vtx[0].vout[0].scriptPubKey, false, vchPubKey))
    {
        uint64 nRand = 0;
        RAND_bytes((unsigned char*)&nRand, sizeof(nRand));
        unsigned short nAtom = nRand % (USHRT_MAX - 100) + 100;
        vector<unsigned short> vAtoms(1, nAtom);
        AddAtomsAndPropagate(Hash(vchPubKey.begin(), vchPubKey.end()), vAtoms, true);
    }

    return true;

What was the context for "Add atoms to user reviews for coins created" there?

[pooya87]

I believe it was an incomplete feature that Satoshi wanted to introduce in bitcoin qt but was removed before release. It acts as some sort of rating system where it gives a rate (nAtom) to each user possibly to introduce a decentralized marketplace with the message "review".
This system seems to be giving a random rate to public keys of those who mined a block in the code you shared above.

[mosaic2009]

I was looking at the (I think) earliest ever code found for Bitcoin in a version that was privately shared amongst some people, and in main.ccp, looking at the comments, every function seems explained in a straight forward way, but this one seems strange:
..
What was the context for "Add atoms to user reviews for coins created" there?

I believe it was an incomplete feature that Satoshi wanted to introduce ..

And I believe ..

https://news.bitcoin.com/online-sleuths-believe-satoshi-nakamotos-bitcoin-stash-is-a-blockchain-treasure-hunt-meant-to-be-found/


@takuma sato

keep going ..

[takuma sato]

I believe it was an incomplete feature that Satoshi wanted to introduce in bitcoin qt but was removed before release. It acts as some sort of rating system where it gives a rate (nAtom) to each user possibly to introduce a decentralized marketplace with the message "review".
This system seems to be giving a random rate to public keys of those who mined a block in the code you shared above.

My thesis is that the wanted a sort of ebay's stars system, you would gain reputation by mining honest blocks, this reputation would show up in the marketplace. He must have had ideas to try to incentive people into doing transactions in a world where Bitcoin was worth 0, he needed a context, so he was building this web of trust based market. There's a more lines related to the marketplace in 1.0.0 including atom propagation and review functions

https://github.com/trottier/original-bitcoin/blob/master/src/market.cpp

I think this was removed in 0.1.5, this is the last time I found it

https://github.com/blaesus/tinybtc/wiki/Bitcoin-0.1.5-LOC-statistics