Introducing: History of Bitcoin

[BitcoinHistorian24]

After 4.5 years, 100+ pioneer interviews, and contributions from 300+ people, I am proud to finally introduce 'History of Bitcoin' to BitcoinTalk, which has been one of the biggest sources of information for this project from the very beginning as well as appearing in many of the events.

Our goal is to make it interesting for those of you who have been in the community for years, while also helping to educate a whole new generation of Bitcoiners.

The Timeline

A free interactive timeline of 128 key moments in Bitcoin’s history can be found here:
https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/history

It is built on 100+ interviews with the people who shaped Bitcoin’s early years. Each story is brought to life by 128 world-class artists, including painters, illustrators, photographers, and coders.

Interviews include theymos, Martti Malmi, Samson Mow, Jameson Lopp, and many others.

For anyone interested in Bitcoin’s history, we would really appreciate it if you took a look at the timeline. All feedback are very welcome.

Some of the key Bitcointalk events covered are:

Some of the key Bitcoin Talk events are:

The launch of BitcoinTalk: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/a-forum-for-debate
Bitcoin's logo: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/a-symbolic-day
The first poker game: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/all-in-on-bitcoin
SmokeTooMuch's failed auction:https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/auction-of-the-century
First mobile to mobile transaction: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/tap-to-send
Satoshi's last post: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/satoshi-bye
Wealthy elite: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/wealthy-elite
First Bitcoin conference: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/new-york-new-york
HODL: https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/hodl

We are, of course, open to any extra information, context, or corrections on these or any other events from people who were there.


The Book

We have also immortalised these 128 moments in a 256-page art book.

Limited to 2,140 copies.

Printed on gallery-quality paper and accompanied by a steel stand engraved with the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Each book contains a unique fragment of Bitcoin’s original source code. Together, all 2,140 fragments form the complete codebase, so every collector is permanently connected to the others.

Details here: https://shop.historyofbitcoin.io/

Charity Auction

The First Edition is housed in a museum-grade enclosure carved from 5,000-year-old fossilised oak, featuring a Bitcoin emblem by Asprey Studio.

Proceeds from the First Edition will be donated to My First Bitcoin, connecting Bitcoin’s history with its future.

Details here: https://shop.historyofbitcoin.io/first-edition

Events

We have upcoming events in New York and Dubai if anyone here is available to attend.

New York: https://luma.com/y712ad0i?utm_source=b
Dubai: https://luma.com/85mk1pzg?utm_source=b

The First Edition will also be on display at Bitcoin MENA. If anyone from BitcoinTalk is attending, please message me, I would love to say hello.

Give us a follow on X if you are on it: https://x.com/bysmashtoshi

[JaanusRaim]

Congratulations! It is a great work.

I bet that the most interesting pages of BTC history are ahead. Therefore the second edition will be needed after some years.

[348Judah]

You made a good search on these, as it focuses not only on Bitcoin history alone, but some of the forum historical performance which we all can learn about the community and bitcoin as a whole, I also have some few additional contributions on this note.

bitcoin history
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5438353.0

btc forum donators and brief bitcointalk history
https://bitcointalk.org/donate.html

Bitcointalk's important historic changes
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5186820.0

[buwaytress]

I saw your post on LinkedIn (commented on with a company page, if you recall). And I'll repeat what I said then -- I always enjoyed some of the milestones in the original History of Bitcoin site (it went down in 2016, and I recall was continued for a year or two more on a another url I don't remember). This is a very nice successor!

Reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20250817222525/http://historyofbitcoin.org/

[toryn388]

Kinda funny seeing Bitcoin’s messy old forum lore being preserved like museum pieces. Half those events felt like jokes at the time.

[OcTradism]

After 4.5 years, 100+ pioneer interviews, and contributions from 300+ people, I am proud to finally introduce 'History of Bitcoin' to BitcoinTalk, which has been one of the biggest sources of information for this project from the very beginning as well as appearing in many of the events.

Our goal is to make it interesting for those of you who have been in the community for years, while also helping to educate a whole new generation of Bitcoiners.

You will need this book and some resources for completing your archival of Bitcoin history like archivals of emails among Satoshi Nakamoto and some cypherpunks.
[READ] Bitcoin history book!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M8z4M4oV4WC_aIGWkn-tO_T7Nkllj47C/view?usp=sharing

Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.
https://gavinandresen.ninja/eleven-years-ago-today
https://www.bitcoin.com/satoshi-archive/emails/gavin-andresen/
https://plan99.net/~mike/satoshi-emails/thread1.html
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf
https://mmalmi.github.io/satoshi/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bitcoin-adam-backs-complete-emails-satoshi-nakamoto

[Satofan44]

A free interactive timeline of 128 key moments in Bitcoin’s history can be found here:
https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/history

This is some excellent work and deserves more attention over here. I'd like to say two things. Firstly, a history is always going to be somewhat subjective in terms of the selection process. Some people may tell you that you should have not included something or failed to include something else, most of those concerns can be dismissed as they come with their own biases or in the case of this forum -- it is mostly just writing to increase the post count. No history is perfect and obviously it must be curated otherwise it would becoming too long and most people would not want to read it. An occasional good suggestion may come and that is worth examining.

Secondly, who are you? I don't mean this in any bad way but the About page on the website does not provide any information. Here's an example from the top.

Smashtoshi is a global art and education collective that brings Bitcoin’s story to life through powerful visuals, storytelling, and immersive experiences.

Founded by who? Started when? 2025? Of course you may prefer to stay anonymous but it could give you some more credibility.

The Book

We have also immortalised these 128 moments in a 256-page art book.

Limited to 2,140 copies.

Printed on gallery-quality paper and accompanied by a steel stand engraved with the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Each book contains a unique fragment of Bitcoin’s original source code. Together, all 2,140 fragments form the complete codebase, so every collector is permanently connected to the others.

Details here: https://shop.historyofbitcoin.io/

This looks like a fantastic piece of work! Well done. The price is a bit crazy though, I think you're targeting rich maxis with a price of $4,600 USD. It should at the very least come with advice on how to preserve it. 

Charity Auction

The First Edition is housed in a museum-grade enclosure carved from 5,000-year-old fossilised oak, featuring a Bitcoin emblem by Asprey Studio.

Proceeds from the First Edition will be donated to My First Bitcoin, connecting Bitcoin’s history with its future.

Details here: https://shop.historyofbitcoin.io/first-edition

How can someone be sure it is the oak that you are talking about and not another kind of wood?

[BitcoinHistorian24]

Kinda funny seeing Bitcoin’s messy old forum lore being preserved like museum pieces. Half those events felt like jokes at the time.

When you trace it back, you find countless moments that seemed small at the time but set off a chain of events that brought us to where we are today. MANY of those happened on BitcoinTalk.

[fikrett]

Kinda funny seeing Bitcoin’s messy old forum lore being preserved like museum pieces. Half those events felt like jokes at the time.

When you trace it back, you find countless moments that seemed small at the time but set off a chain of events that brought us to where we are today. MANY of those happened on BitcoinTalk.

History is always like that, most don't understand that what unfolds may be told like a legend for the people to come one day

[BitcoinHistorian24]

After 4.5 years, 100+ pioneer interviews, and contributions from 300+ people, I am proud to finally introduce 'History of Bitcoin' to BitcoinTalk, which has been one of the biggest sources of information for this project from the very beginning as well as appearing in many of the events.

Our goal is to make it interesting for those of you who have been in the community for years, while also helping to educate a whole new generation of Bitcoiners.

You will need this book and some resources for completing your archival of Bitcoin history like archivals of emails among Satoshi Nakamoto and some cypherpunks.
[READ] Bitcoin history book!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M8z4M4oV4WC_aIGWkn-tO_T7Nkllj47C/view?usp=sharing

Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.
https://gavinandresen.ninja/eleven-years-ago-today
https://www.bitcoin.com/satoshi-archive/emails/gavin-andresen/
https://plan99.net/~mike/satoshi-emails/thread1.html
[Suspicious link removed]j.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf
https://mmalmi.github.io/satoshi/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bitcoin-adam-backs-complete-emails-satoshi-nakamoto

These are all great resources which we recommend people dig into! We could or written much more on each event but with 128 events it would of become too long for people to read. I know people are going deep into some of the subjects they found interesting.

[BitcoinHistorian24]

Kinda funny seeing Bitcoin’s messy old forum lore being preserved like museum pieces. Half those events felt like jokes at the time.

When you trace it back, you find countless moments that seemed small at the time but set off a chain of events that brought us to where we are today. MANY of those happened on BitcoinTalk.

History is always like that, most don't understand that what unfolds may be told like a legend for the people to come one day

Things are happening today which will prove to be important in the future while a lot of stuff going on which seemed big at the time turned out to be noise

[fikrett]

Kinda funny seeing Bitcoin’s messy old forum lore being preserved like museum pieces. Half those events felt like jokes at the time.

When you trace it back, you find countless moments that seemed small at the time but set off a chain of events that brought us to where we are today. MANY of those happened on BitcoinTalk.

History is always like that, most don't understand that what unfolds may be told like a legend for the people to come one day

Things are happening today which will prove to be important in the future while a lot of stuff going on which seemed big at the time turned out to be noise

Definitely!

That's why we have such projects like yours to differ such events from one another. Thanks for your reply.