Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym used by the person or people who developed Bitcoin, authored its white paper, created the original reference implementation of Bitcoin and published it. As part of the process, Nakamoto created the first blockchain database. Nakamoto was the first to solve the double-spending problem of digital currency using a peer-to-peer network, and was active in developing Bitcoin until December 2010.
Nakamoto stated that work on Bitcoin began in 2007, and on August 18, 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered, and Nakamoto published a paper on the cryptography mailing list describing a digital currency titled 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.'
On January 9, 2009, Nakamoto released 'version 0.1' of the Bitcoin program on SourceForge, and launched the network by mining the 'Genesis Block' (block number 0), receiving a reward of 50 Bitcoins. The text embedded in the coinbase of this block is: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks," which is a headline that appeared in the British newspaper 'The Times' on that day. This note was interpreted as a timestamp for the creation of Bitcoin, and as a satirical comment on the instability caused by fractional reserve banking.
Nakamoto continued to collaborate with other developers on the Bitcoin program until mid-2010, where he made all modifications to the source code, then handed over control of the core code and the network alert key to Gavin Andresen, transferred many related domains to prominent members of the Bitcoin community, and ceased his recognized participation in the project.
