Satoshi's lesson

[theymos]

The foundations of Bitcoin were set in stone 10 years ago today with the creation of the genesis block, and Bitcoin version 0.1 was officially released a week later. Version 0.1 was amazingly complete, and even more impressively, it had very few bugs. It also had great forward-compatibility, with explicit support for future softforks in the form of the OP_NOPn opcodes. Before anyone knew how a decentralized cryptocurrency would even work, Satoshi was figuring out how to add to Bitcoin things like smart contracts and payment channels. This is incredible, and a lot of people look at Satoshi's amazing accomplishments with Bitcoin and say stuff like, "Satoshi must be a crypto super-genius, the next Einstein." This, I think, is very much missing the point.

When Satoshi was working on Bitcoin in 2007-2009, almost all of the core ideas of Bitcoin were well-known in the cryptography community. In 1996, a summary of previous academic work on electronic cash was published, talking at length about most of the low-level cryptographic primitives used in Bitcoin and using familiar terms like "double spending". Hashcash proof-of-work was well-known, and I remember reading about it prior to Bitcoin as an idea to prevent email spam. git uses the same unbreakable chain of hashes as Bitcoin's block chain, and was first released in 2005. Satoshi made one major leap: combining all these pieces to prevent double spending through a PoW block chain. This was impressive, but the same flash of brilliance could've happened to anyone who was following this stuff.

Satoshi is not awesome because he was watching the crypto world and had a brilliant idea. He's awesome because upon having this idea, he carried it out. You know what I would've done if this idea had come to me? I probably would've mentioned it to a few people, maybe written some very basic code if I was feeling especially ambitious. You know what Satoshi did? He spent 2+ years contemplating every possible aspect of the system he could think of, and wrote code that worked brilliantly in the real world. Satoshi's code was good, but anyone who had read a good C++ book could've written similarly-good code. Anyone who had taken an intro crypto course or read a few books on the subject would understand Satoshi's usage of crypto primitives. The task of creating Bitcoin required a small flash of brilliance, moderate skill, and an unbelievably huge amount of dedication to thinking about, coding, and testing the system until it worked exactly as envisioned.

Satoshi's lesson is that you don't need to be the next Einstein in order to change the world. Nor do you need to have much money, or influence with the world's "movers & shakers". You just need to put in the effort. Satoshi, probably just an ordinary hobbyist like anyone here, saw that something was lacking in the Universe, and he fought tooth-and-nail for 2+ years until this imperfection was corrected. This is what makes Satoshi and his work my greatest inspiration.

Bitcoin has come a long way in 10 years, but it still has much more room to grow, with both major challenges and major opportunities ahead. How Bitcoin moves forward - how Satoshi's work continues - is for as many people as possible to take personal responsbility for improving the Bitcoin ecosystem, creating interesting things, and changing the world for the better. Since we've long passed the moon, I hope you'll join me in aiming for the stars.

[elda34b]

Thanks for posting this theymos, somehow it injects new enthusiasm for me to continue learning about coding. I have always been interested in coding but didn't find enough motivation to continue learning it, taking the wrong course and choice of career in the process. I think of giving up pursuing that, thinking maybe I'm not that good on this field as I keep failing, yet I always imagine myself as a coder, or to be precise, a bitcoin developer.

Knowing that satoshi is not that "brilliant" give me a new motivation. I'd probably not achieve the same thing as he did, but I will follow the same path.

[DaCryptoRaccoon]

Fantastic Theymos.

I would agree bitcoin has come a very long way in 10 years I think the community and adoption we see today is something spectacular from the small beginnings and with the combination of many of the cryptography tools of the time matched with the ideas and technical papers behind some of the early digital cash projects it was only a matter of time before they were packages in such a way to create the system we see today.

I have been around bitcoin since very early on I can recall early times playing about with the early clients and burning out a laptop in the process.
It was amazing to see something launch and do so with very few issues though there were a few faults along the road like when 0.3.13 had some issues with 0/conf transactions ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1327.msg15110#msg15110

Or when Block 74638 rolled around https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=822.0.  

All testament to the resilient nature of bitcoin and the people who strive to make bitcoin great!

I often wonder when people say things like  "Satoshi was figuring out how to add to Bitcoin things like smart contracts and payment channels."

I sometimes wonder if there was another project similar to bitcoin that satoshi worked on after bitcoin.

But I will keep my speculation for another time.

Happy Birthday Bitcoin

[vit05]

Ok, great text, you touched on several points that most people do not usually comment on when they talk about Bitcoin or Satoshi. The dedication he had was out of the ordinary, it's common for people to get a bit addicted to a hobby. How much he used his imagination is also very interesting, I imagine someone in an office closed by several dawns, writing theories and imagining the most improbable possibilities.

But what really impresses me is the total lack of influence and "money" he had before Bitcoin. No one knew who he was or what he could do. He had no reputation.

If you want to get a job, start a business, publish an article, people will ask who you are before of anything. And the importance they attach to you is connected to what you did in the past or to who is introducing you to them. It is a revolution that the only work of an avatar/profile with zero reputation has had that impact and marked the lives of so many people.

Perhaps in a more decentralized future, we might be surprised by other revolutions appearing in the most improbable places and by people totally unknown before. Anonymity and the right to privacy is not a bad thing and should always be a universal right.

[Kopyleft]

This is an excellent depiction of the Satoshi vision and the lessons there in for everyone to learn from.
I am not that knowledgeable in coding, but Satoshi's unflagging determination and focus could be applied in other spheres of life with similar success.

I missed the moon launch, but getting fully prepared for the stars.

[Kakmakr]

I have seen several people commenting on Satoshi's original code and most of them says it was sloppy. Yes, it might not have been the work of one of the best coders or developers out there, but the concept and the forward thinking to mash all of the different components together, was the brilliance behind this.

I also think his sloppy code was a rushed attempt to get the project out there and to fine tune it later, because his main goal was not to create the perfect code, but to put a working alternative payment option out there for people who wanted to break away from a centralized Banking system that was exploiting/destroying the global economy with their greed. 

Thank you Satoshi for giving us an alternative option. 

[Mpamaegbu]

Satoshi's code was good, but anyone who had read a good C++ book could've written similarly-good code.

This here makes it look like it's an easy task and it belittles all that Satoshi did. This is easier said than done. I want to continue to see and view him as the super brain that he is.

[amishmanish]

The impact of his dedication towards making his vision into reality is multiplied by his foresight to remain anonymous. Usually when we do something, the motivation is success, fame or wealth. Even simply self realization. It is hard to fathom that one man could do all of this and then choose to pass into anonymity, far from all the adulation and material gains.

This is probably the reason that some people believe that Satoshi passed on with Hal. It was really insightful and motivating to read this post. I renew my commitment to continue learning and contribute to the cause of decentralization and freedom of ideas.

Satoshi's code was good, but anyone who had read a good C++ book could've written similarly-good code.

This here makes it look like it's an easy task and it belittles all that Satoshi did. This is easier said than done.

I feel it just puts across the point that the level of knowledge needed to implement bitcoin's code wasn't Einstein-level exclusive. It was the dedication over those years of coding which was extraordinary. That is indeed the point of this post. For decentralization and Bitcoin to survive, more and more of us need to overcome our fear of not having enough knowledge and work towards our own individual contributions; with steadfast dedication.

Of course you understand that the intention is not to belittle anything. Even then, if you feel this (as a programmer yourself probably), it'd be helpful if you give your own perspective on the difficulty level of the code. It'd be good knowledge for learners like myself.

[mu_enrico]

Satoshi's tenacity is extraordinary. He spent hours of work without knowing whether he will get paid or not. In the present day (for me at least), I won't spend so many work hours without incentives. Maybe for Satoshi, coding is like gaming, or in other words, he loves to code. I want to believe that this (bitcoin) is a hobby project, but It might be a research project too. Maybe he was getting paid for this research... Nevertheless, he is an awesome dude.

Happy birthday bitcoin, happy birthday me.

[niotib]

Bitcoin is for everyone, I mean for the mankind! So, anybody who's living in the planet Earth has the same possession to use Bitcoins and he/she/it should have an environment to use Bitcoins with a free mind. As I believe, that's the dream of Satoshi.  

The problem is, Bitcoin still don't have enough nobility and reputation for fulfilling its inventor's dream. Without nobility and reputation, it's difficult to spread Bitcoins into traditional communities (Due to own experiences).

How to improve the nobility and reputation of Bitcoins? Theymos, you like people (influencers) can play a major role there. I know you're doing your best to the Bitcoin community by running this great forum. In the fact, the Bitcoin world owe to you, hats off!

But, sometimes, your insouciance (or something similar) is badly effecting to the nobility and reputation of Bitcoins. I'm not ready to disclose them here right now since, yet, I  don't know the exact purpose behind the invention of Bitcoins (My best belief is Satoshi invented Bitcoins for the progression of mankind). Anyway, there're some stories, agree, most of us don't believe those stories, but, none of us can 100% neglect them too. The point is, due to some stories behind invention of Bitcoins, WHAT I'M SEEING THROUGH YOU as obstructive for the nobility and reputation of Bitcoins, may be purpose oriented.  

[kelz1]

It goes to show that you don't need to be a politician to change the world, for all we know (although unlikely) satoshi could be a teenager living in his parents basement. To challenge the entire global payment system you need to have real guts and the mind of a visionary.

Additionally greed is clearly not his motivation, hence 1 million bitcoins still sitting in his wallet!

[coin8coin8]

One of the most important reasons why Bitcoin can resonate with and get support from most people is that Satoshi sets an example for us. You don't need to have IQ like Einstein, and you don't need to have many money as Bill Gates, as an ordinary person, you can still succeed, only you need to pay time and effort.
Many people don't understand it now. They think that Satoshi's success has accidental factors, but ignores the efforts of Satoshi before Bitcoin was born. Satoshi has been studying this for a long time before Bitcoin was born, success is not only within one day.
Today, Bitcoin has been born for 10 years, but it still has at least 90 years of life, so the future of Bitcoin is worth our attention.

[Ucy]

Awesome piece.

[Ispep]

Satoshi's lesson is that you don't need to be the next Einstein in order to change the world. Nor do you need to have much money, or influence with the world's "movers & shakers". You just need to put in the effort

This is a very vital part of the OP and it serves as a mammoth motivation both on and off the cryptocurrency sphere,so many individuals have let opportunities slip out of their fingers for many reasons,one being they see themselves as not being capable of going all out to make X or Y happen, that way some other individuals at a later period picks such opportunities up and makes a name with it,even though someone prior had such thoughts and ideas.
We all can make this network a better place,by at least putting in a little effort
It even reflects in users who hardly make worthy posts,they have limited themselves to mediocrity,and if they can add just a little effort,then they will be able to develop themselves and contribute to the community.
This is a wonderful and enriching post,and it's encouraged me to strive to develop myself in here even more and probably be a better,richer and more knowledgeable cryptocurrency enthusiast come the end of the year

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

Good write up. It would be interesting to see which block gets the timestamp of 2019-01-03 18:15:05. Ten years is no longer way but the development, changes, acceptance it has undergone is literally sky high. Satoshi and the fellow helpers like Hal, sirius has undoubtedly made many people millionaires and billionaires, has challenged government organizations, brought up the future of money and what not. If satoshi alone was promoting this right back in the early days of the network, it would not have reached such heights. Apart from theymos, most of us came here only after what came to be known as cryptocurrency. Satoshi was not only a good coder, he was probably a good economist too who thought upon various economic aspects of making bitcoin future of money.

Usually when we do
Of course you understand that the intention is not to belittle anything. Even then, if you feel this (as a programmer yourself probably), it'd be helpful if you give your own perspective on the difficulty level of the code. It'd be good knowledge for learners like myself.

I am not a C++ coder, but based on the knowledge gained from my university it is easier to understand the code if you have read some basic level of programming and know how cryptography works. The flow could be easier to you only if you know where the cryptography gets applied in the code. Unless it could be a difficult time for beginners and newbies reading the code. For people like us, we can understand better by compiling the code. You can also follow the codebase present in git and read the issues, PR which are raised by devs for easy understanding of how the flow works.


If people are not part of any signature campaigns, here are some signatures designed by me for celebrating the 10th Birthday.  

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《SATOSHI NAKAMOTO 《 ▬▬▬▬▬   BITCOIN   ▬▬▬▬▬ 》 JANUARY 3,2009 》
A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
Whitepaper  《  Coinmarketcap  ●  Github   》  Forum

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[center][url=https://bitcoin.org/en/][b]《[/b][color=#EBB523][size=9pt][font=arial black]SATOSHI NAKAMOTO[/font][/size][/color] [color=#f69212]《[/color] [font=arial black] [color=#f69212]▬▬▬▬▬   [/color][color=#f69212]BITCOIN   [/color][color=#f69212]▬▬▬▬▬ [/color][/font][color=#f69212]》[/color][font=arial black][color=#EBB523] JANUARY 3,2009 [/color][/font][b]》[/b]
[font=arial black][color=#EB9423]A Peer-to-Peer[/color][color=#f69212] Electronic Cash System[/color][/font][/url]
[font=arial][b][url=https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf]Whitepaper[/url]  [color=#f69212]《[/color]  [url=https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/]Coinmarketcap[/url]  ●  [url=https://github.com/bitcoin/]Github[/url][color=#f69212]   》[/color]  [url=https://bitcointalk.org/]Forum[/url][/b][/font][/center]

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[pptIox]

Unconsciously, Bitcoin has been born for 10 years. When I look back at the history of Bitcoin, I feel that it is not a long time. I even think it might have only been born for 3-5 years. To be honest, before 2014, I had never heard of Bitcoin. My earliest memory of Bitcoin stayed in a hacking exchange event.

[FlightyPouch]

Unconsciously, Bitcoin has been born for 10 years. When I look back at the history of Bitcoin, I feel that it is not a long time. I even think it might have only been born for 3-5 years. To be honest, before 2014, I had never heard of Bitcoin. My earliest memory of Bitcoin stayed in a hacking exchange event.

Well my first time seeing Bitcoin if I am not mistaken is 5 years ago. I don't know if that is a replay of a tv show but I do heard the line of the host saying "Bitcoin is being accepted at some pubs at ...". I just shrugged it off since I don't know what is that and fast forward to 3 years later when I knew what Bitcoin was and there is this regret that I should've ask some people I knew online about it. I did not invest that quickly on Bitcoin but I do some small mining on PCs and spread some referrals. I started investing, and it is really sad, at the the price of $765 though I am earning some satoshis before $600. It is fun though, this is the first currency I invested in and it is great. Great 10 years of Bitcoin will pass and I know it will be developed more in the upcoming years. Better invest while the price is low and keep on holding.

[Harlot]

theymos actually brought up a good point on how Satoshi had an idea and made it possible through hardwork and dedication. People also need to use what Satoshi had taught us in our personal lives, we must learn that we won't be going anywhere without putting up the work to reach our goals. Satoshi identified what is missing in our world and made Bitcoin as a solution. I personally consider this something how business minded people work he himself brought in a new kind of market just by with his idea and influence this crypto market didn't even existed since other coins like Litecoin, ETH, Dogecoin came along.

[BitcoinFX]

Prescient

[enhu]

Good Point. He still changed the world. What I find a lot interesting about Satoshi is that he is good in keeping himself private and doesn't really need fame after all.

theymos actually brought up a good point on how Satoshi had an idea and made it possible through hardwork and dedication. People also need to use what Satoshi had taught us in our personal lives, we must learn that we won't be going anywhere without putting up the work to reach our goals. Satoshi identified what is missing in our world and made Bitcoin as a solution. I personally consider this something how business minded people work he himself brought in a new kind of market just by with his idea and influence this crypto market didn't even existed since other coins like Litecoin, ETH, Dogecoin came along.

They said Bitcoin was created to fight the 2008 crisis. If indeed true then it is on the way of solving all these along with all the Altcoins.