Daily Crypto NewsEDITION #1084, 01 November

Happy Birthday, Bitcoin Whitepaper!

Yesterday, October 31st, the Bitcoin whitepaper turned exactly 16 years old! Even Donald Trump marked the occasion, and we missed it.

So, we’re making up for it by dedicating this entire Friday digest to this milestone.

Historical Background:

On October 31, 2008, a then-unknown developer under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper on a new technology called Bitcoin.

You can read the full whitepaper here: [Bitcoin Whitepaper]. It’s essentially the Bitcoin Bible – just 9 pages, but challenging for an untrained reader to digest.

Let’s break down the key points so you can impress others with your “I totally read the whitepaper” vibe:

Here’s a loose interpretation for clarity.

- Satoshi was against third parties

People trust banks to handle their payments, but banks charge high fees and can control transactions (cancel, delay, etc.). Satoshi insists that a peer-to-peer (P2P) network is the best solution to these problems.

- Privacy

This one’s straightforward. You can see the transaction amount, but unlike in a bank, you can’t identify the person.

- The double-spending problem

Companies used to struggle with creating their own currency because users could spend it twice, undermining the system. Satoshi tackled this by:

 Making all transactions public

 Having all users agree on a unified method of currency usage

In short, everyone accepts the public rules of the game, and the system is controlled by computers.

- Miners!

Satoshi points out that there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins, making it immune to inflation like fiat currencies, such as the dollar. And the reward system motivates miners to act honestly, working for the common good rather than gaming the system.

So there you have it. Do you hold any Bitcoin, or are you all in on altcoins?