Skip to content
COLD HARDCUSTODY

Learn

Quotes from the beginning

  1. “I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”
    Satoshi Nakamoto · · Cryptography Mailing List (original)

    The first public announcement of the Bitcoin white paper.

  2. “Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea.”
    Hal Finney · · Cryptography Mailing List (original)

    One of the first replies to the white paper announcement.

  3. “It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly. I'm better with code than with words though.”
    Satoshi Nakamoto · · Cryptography Mailing List (original)

    Replying on the mailing list about what keeps the network running.

  4. “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”
    Genesis block · · Block 0 coinbase (original)

    Embedded in the coinbase of block 0, quoting that day's front page of The Times.

  5. “Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system that uses a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending.”
    Satoshi Nakamoto · · Cryptography Mailing List (original)

    The release announcement for Bitcoin v0.1.

  6. “Running bitcoin”
    Hal Finney · · X (Twitter) (original)

    Posted the day he started running the software (Jan 11, 03:33 UTC).

  7. “It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on.”
    Satoshi Nakamoto · · Cryptography Mailing List (original)

    Discussing on the mailing list how early adoption could bootstrap the system.

  8. “Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.”
    Satoshi Nakamoto · · BitcoinTalk (original)

    Replying in a forum thread about coins lost forever.

  9. “If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.”
    Satoshi Nakamoto · · BitcoinTalk (original)

    Ending a reply about scalability and transaction speed.

  10. “I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying.”
    Hal Finney · · BitcoinTalk (original)

    From his essay looking back on four years with Bitcoin.

Who they were

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous author of the Bitcoin white paper, announced on the Cryptography Mailing List on October 31, 2008, who released the first version of the software on January 8, 2009 (announcement; release). Satoshi’s identity remains unknown.

Hal Finney worked on an early version of PGP with Phil Zimmermann and ran the first cryptographically based anonymous remailer. He wrote that he was the first person besides Satoshi to run Bitcoin and received the first bitcoin transaction, ten coins Satoshi sent as a test. He was diagnosed with ALS in August 2009 (“Bitcoin and me”, 2013). The transaction is in block 170.

A note on fake quotes

Many popular “Satoshi quotes” can’t be traced to any original post. We left out every quote we couldn’t verify word for word at its original source. See also the history and timeline.