A chronological, footnoted history of Bitcoin, from the cypherpunks to the courtrooms

The Written History of Bitcoin

The Written History of Bitcoin is my long-form, chronological account of how we got here, in installments of 5,000 to 22,000 words each. It starts in the cryptographic pre-history, follows Satoshi's emergence in 2008 and 2009, and runs through the early years, the Year of the Pizza, Silk Road and the Senators, and the money trail, before it reaches the fight that still defines the thing: the Bitcoin Civil War. That war was less an argument over a number in the code and more a fight over who gets to change the rules, and that fight decides what Bitcoin is for.

I have been in Bitcoin since 2012 and researching its origins since 2013, and I write this one with the footnotes attached. Each part stands alone, but the series reads as one continuous narrative, from the first forum fights to the courtrooms, the contagion, and the biggest frauds in Bitcoin. Turns out the dates matter.