This article was published in Bitcoin Magazine. “The Half Problem”. Click here here To get your copy.
If the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery in 2021, the same is true for the period from 2008 to 2010 when the Bitcoin creator served as the project’s lead developer and leader.
However, beyond the lifeless development period of the project, Nakamoto worked during those years with dozens if not hundreds of Bitcoin users, all of whom contributed to the effort in various ways, by creating websites, engaging in trading, and evangelizing his invention.
However, some users have naturally emerged as more distinguished contributors.
Whether it’s helping to establish the core elements of Bitcoin’s philosophy or expressing its value propositions in new and innovative ways, meritocracy has evolved at the speed of the market, with some contributors receiving huge rewards from their peers.
With this in mind, this list aims to identify contributors who have contributed significantly to defining and shaping Bitcoin and its early years, identifying their specific efforts and highlighting their relevant work.
Marty Malmi (@Sirius)
Martti Malmi, Satoshi’s first assistant, showed his commitment to Bitcoin at a time when few people were willing to see value in an internet currency that lacked even an exchange rate.
In May 2009, Malmi was a college student and contributed directly to Bitcoin.org and the Bitcoin Wiki, helping to make the sites look more comprehensive and professional. (He was less kind to the euro he used at the time, Writing “Bitcoin.org” on any bills you encounter.)
Malmi also added an early Austrian perspective to the conversation about Bitcoin, dismissing complaints about gold as “Old Keynesian ArgumentsNote that the precious metal is “unmatched” by any paper currency in terms of the stability it provides over time.
In his entrepreneurial efforts, Malmi was not very successful, as his early Bitcoin exchange service, BitcoinExchange.com, struggled to get off the ground in 2010.
However, he certainly made his biggest mark in Bitcoin evangelism, creating a Facebook page (which reads “Say no to central banks – use Bitcoin, the revolutionary peer-to-peer currency!”) and leading the first major effort to make Bitcoin a digital currency. propaganda.
Themos
Theymos is considered one of the most influential thinkers on Bitcoin, and he never contributed to the Bitcoin project’s code directly, but instead served for years as a central moderator of its main forums.
He was an avid student of the codebase, and his influence was evident from the early days of the project when Theymos could be counted on in the Bitcoin.org forums or IRC. Determine how the protocol works.and his understanding sometimes surpasses even that of other enthusiastic programmers.
It is clear that after the discovery of Bitcoin in February 2010, Themos began working on auditing the code, as his posts show a sophisticated understanding of not only Basic ConceptsBut even More obscure orders Satoshi was added to the codebase upon launch.
However, Theymos’ contributions to the project’s philosophy are perhaps the most notable. He was the first to directly point out that changes to the code could lead to Causes problems affecting users’ rightsIt’s clear that Themos has thought deeply about the implications of Bitcoin’s design.
For example, he was at the forefront of arguing that users could benefit from being able to split code if they disagreed with project leadership, an argument he pushed to its limits when he tried to Cancel change code It was implemented by Satoshi.
The fact that many, when looking at this controversy, side with Themos’s view on the matter is further evidence that his early thinking has continued.
Hal Feeney (@hal)
Hal Finney, a well-known cryptographer, was tragically only a brief contributor to the early days of Bitcoin and was absent for most of 2009 and 2010 as he struggled to regain his health.
However, Finney’s influence still resonates to this day, particularly because of the enduring optimism with which he approached the project.
Among his few blog posts are some of the most widely quoted moments in the project’s history, including his early accounts of how Bitcoin succeeded. It could be worth millions one day. Should it grow to include global economic exchange?
Elsewhere, Finney is credited with having his own branch of philosophy on how Bitcoin scales, the term “Finnish viewThis is indicative of his belief that layer 2 networks, as well as Bitcoin banks, would help solve the technology’s problems in absorbing demand.
Vinnie, who He died in 2014. At the age of 58, he was also the recipient of the first-ever Bitcoin transaction, and the only person known to have made a direct transaction with Satoshi Nakamoto.
New Liberty Standard
What is the value of Bitcoin? If this is a question that many have asked, NewLibertyStandard was the first to provide it. Submit a reply.
In fact, the first ever fixed price for Bitcoin was provided by NewLibertyStandard. On October 5, 2009When they posted a daily exchange rate of 1,303 Bitcoin to the US dollar. The calculation was done by Calculate electricity cost Used to mine newly minted bitcoins. Satoshi praised it As a useful step in cryptocurrency pricing.
Not only was NewLibertyStandard the creator of the first Bitcoin exchange, it also proposed using the Thai baht symbol to represent Bitcoin and Proposed “BTC” As a three-letter currency symbol.
Despite his huge contributions to the Bitcoin economy, New Liberty Standard could also speak philosophically. For example, he was an early advocate of the idea that Bitcoin could enable individuals to peaceful exit from their governments’ currencies.
Gavin Anderson
Anderson may not have been the father of Bitcoin, but in many ways he raised the child.
Anderson is an Australian-born immigrant from Silicon Valley who is best known for creating a 3D graphics standard in his youth (VRML), and had a well-established career in software before programming on Bitcoin, which included time spent at computer manufacturer Silicon Graphics.
His rise to the Bitcoin ranks was rapid. Not only did he give away over 1,000 free bitcoins to new users, he quickly became Satoshi’s most active contributor, gaining permission to directly update the code by late 2010.
In fact, it was Anderson who would “step up” in Satoshi’s absence, leading a campaign to get new developers involved in the project and shouldering the burden of press and media that had been pushed to the fringes of the tech mainstream during Bitcoin’s initial ascent in 2011.
Andreessen is now often criticized for his role in fomenting subsequent frictions in the project, and it is easy to ignore the fact that Andreessen was also one of Bitcoin’s most eloquent early spokesmen, with his arguments in favor of it being “simply a better currency” finding receptive ears when Bitcoin was a “drug currency” for most people.
Laszlo Hanyecz (Laszlo)
Known as the man who spent thousands of bitcoins on pizza, Laszlo Hanyecz was a Florida-based programmer who was the first to port Bitcoin (which at the time was only available for Windows) to MacOS.
Hanich joined the project in April 2010, and soon It was announced Interested in running Bitcoin on his iPhone, but it would be better for him to May 2010 Resolution Paying 10,000 BTC to anyone who buys him pizza which will be his most significant contribution.
At that time, Bitcoin had a fixed price (less than a penny), and Bitcoins were being bought and sold, but no real product was ever purchased with this nascent currency.
However, Hanych’s time with the project was short. He stopped contributing in August 2010, but has reappeared from time to time for interviews, most recently in 2009 for the news program “60 minutesWhere he discussed the process of buying pizza with Bitcoin.
Artfors
Although Artforz is a largely unknown figure, he is credited with notable engineering contributions, being believed to be the first Bitcoin user to use more powerful GPUs (in the process starting a global mining arms race that continues to this day).
Although Artforz denied the makeup, 25% of early network hashrate As he charged, this was just a rumor in his day, one that they eventually had to address directly on the forums.
However, if Artforz did mine a large number of early blocks, he showed himself to be an altruistic guardian of the network, identifying a bug in one case that, if exploited, would have allowed him to spend bitcoin from other wallets he did not own. Report it directly to Satoshi..
Artforz can also explain and defend Bitcoin with the best of them.
When the idea was brought up that users may never know the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, Artforz succinctly ended the conversation, simply“Let the idea speak for itself.”
Jeff Garzik (I am sorry)
Garzik was a veteran open source contributor to Linux when he founded Bitcoin in 2010, and is known for helping shape the project’s strategy under the supervision of Andreessen, the developer he mentored. encouraging To advance in the wake of Satoshi’s absence.
However, Garzik was an active contributor in the Satoshi days as well, and remains the author of some of the most cited Bitcoin forum posts of the era. Controversially, this includes First proposal to raise the “block size limit”Nakamoto added it first, along with another, more influential proposal for Remove support for free transactions.
Regardless of subsequent struggles, a review of Garzik’s posts shows what made him a strong advocate for Bitcoin, someone who was respected for his thoughtful expressions of how the early network worked.
in One unforgettable line“The effort to raise the transaction rate limit is the same as the effort to change the fundamental nature of Bitcoin: to convince the vast majority of people to upgrade,” Garzik said.
Ironically, his efforts to lead such a campaign marked the end of his tenure with the Bitcoin project after nearly a decade.
Amir Taqi (Gingex)
Amir Takyi, a former professional poker player and open-source video game designer, was just over twenty years old when he stumbled upon Bitcoin in late 2010.
Although it wasn’t until 2014 when he graced the pages of Forbes and Wired With his preference for Bitcoin as a means of fighting the establishment, Takei has shown glimpses of what would make him a divisive (and popular) figure even in Satoshi’s day.
First and foremost, he will try to convince the organizations he admires most to join Bitcoin – organizations like Anonymous and WikiLeaks.
As he set about writing the code for what would be the first ever alternative implementation (com.libbitcoin), and it was expected that Takei would find time to build a coalition to convince WikiLeaks to accept Bitcoin, a decision that would eventually put him at odds with Satoshi, who protested the move.
“Sorry I tried to do something,” he would say. In response to subsequent criticism.
His early forum posts show how and why Taki came to be a lightning rod, and his responses were equal parts combative, enlightened, and intense.
Kiba
Kiba is probably the least well-known name on this list, as it’s not exactly an industry name.
However, they are responsible for helping to shape something that continues to this day: the legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto. As a series of posts on Twitter, IRC, and Bitcoin Talk from 2010 to 2011 show, Kiba was the first to toy with the idea of Satoshi’s identity, or In his own wordstrying “to try hard to make the Satoshi mystery a meme.”
These efforts have mostly taken the form of drawings of Bitcoin’s creator, with Kiba depicting him as everything from a Japanese warrior to a woman. In series He called his book “The Secrets of Satoshi Nakamoto” (his book) Bitcoin ArtUnfortunately, the link has been corrupted.)
But as playful as he may have been, Kiba clearly knew that Bitcoin users were to blame, dropping early quotes that would be deadly on Twitter even today. “Satoshi’s invention is useless without us using it,” he wrote in one of his messages. October 2010.
When Satoshi finally left the project, it was Kiba who declared what appeared to be the first Bitcoin holiday, declaring April 28, 2011, as “Independence Day.”The day Satoshi disappeared,” writing:
“I propose that we make Bitcoin Day a holiday in honor of our legendary anonymous founder and to note that the Bitcoin community will be fine after the inventor of Bitcoin is gone.”
today, Bitcoin Magazine This tradition continues.
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