It has now been sixteen years since the original publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper on the cryptography mailing list. Satoshi went to leave the paper where it would be best received, where all the cypherpunks and cryptography nerds who had been obsessed with digital monetary systems for years hung out and regularly talked about that subject and other related topics.
The whitepaper was nowhere near a comprehensive description of the Bitcoin protocol. It didn’t describe the scripting language at all, it didn’t go into any difficulty adjustment algorithm, it only vaguely described its concept. It did not define the exact protocol blocks distributed across the network (just a vague description), or the difference between consensus and policy rules. It did not define an issuance schedule or an aggregate offering, only that it could be finite at an arbitrary value and eventually end issuance to support the network on a fee-only basis.
None of the actual implementation details or details of the actual system were described in any way. Just the general concept of a proof-of-work secure blockchain and how it could function without a central third party taking on the role of record keeper for transaction history to prevent double-spending.
This is still a fairly in-depth document considering all its shortcomings when weighed against the Bitcoin protocol itself as a whole. Applying proof-of-work with a difficulty adjustment to the double-spending problem is the profound breakthrough that actually differentiated Bitcoin from previous attempts at digital cash, such as bitgold or e-cash.
While the whitepaper itself doesn’t contain nearly enough information to re-implement the protocol as it stands, it is enough to replicate a similar enough system. It’s the core of it, the bits that really matter had exist for the protocol we know is being brought into the world. Despite its lack of detail and specificity, it will stand the test of time as one of the most important academic papers published in the 21st century.
Everything put into the world starts with an idea, and the ideas in this article are truly profound in the implications and consequences they have had and will continue to have on the world around us.
Happy Whitepaper Day.
This article is a To take. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.