BITCOIN - The Original Paper that started it all

BITCOIN - The Original Paper that started it all

Posted By: billym [Send E-Mail]
Date: Friday, 5-Apr-2013 09:23:51

Bitcoin, the virtual currency, has been going crazy lately, a huge surge in value apparently triggered by the Cyprus crisis and collapse in trust of banks. It's been in the news a lot in past week or two so I've been reading all about it. One weird thing about it is that nobody seems to know who actually started the thing, just that it was an anonymous person "somewhere" who used "Satoshi Nakamoto" as a pseudonym. Who was (is) he? The unknown "genius" who invented anonymous money transactions has himself remained truly anonymous. However, we can read the paper he wrote which started it all. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto View http://www.mediafire.com/view/?5jgv4v7wc732hm6 Download http://www.mediafire.com/?5jgv4v7wc732hm6 Here is the Abstract section: Abstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they'll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone. I wish I had bought a few a few months ago! I printed out the 9 page paper so that I could study it later (in a more horizontal position). Current bitcoin value quoted by https://mtgox.com/ is $137.20. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=273370