04

Follow the decisions

Bitcoin is a chain of decisions, not a single date.

18 articles in this rubric.

Block 170 · January 12, 2009

Ten BTC Between Two Computers

The first known transfer from Satoshi to Hal Finney tested whether the network could preserve one action between two participants.

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Peer discovery · 2009–2013

When Bitcoin Introduced Computers Through IRC

How a temporary centralized helper introduced nodes without gaining authority over the network’s rules or history.

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First calculated rate · October 2009

A Price Before There Was a Market

How electricity costs gave BTC its first published reference point before a functioning market existed.

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Bitcoin Market · January–April 2010

Nine Participants and the First Trade

How test orders, a discovered flaw, and a handful of participants became the first documented BTC market.

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May 22, 2010

10,000 BTC for two pizzas: loss or proof?

One exchange showed that digital units could leave the screen and purchase a real result.

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Everyday payments · 2010 → 2026

From Pizza to Groceries

Where BTC reaches an ordinary checkout, who receives the bitcoin, and why permitted payment is not the same as legal tender.

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Bitcoin 0.3 · July 2010

How Bitcoin Reached Slashdot’s Audience

The community prepared the submission together, while an outside audience responded with criticism, questions, and software testing.

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March 11–12, 2013

The night two versions of Bitcoin existed

Miners abandoned the stronger branch to restore a compatible shared history.

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Block 74638 · August 15, 2010

184 billion BTC that should never have existed

A value-overflow bug created an impossible amount, and participants adopted repaired rules within hours.

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2009 → 2010

Who drew the orange ₿?

Satoshi offered a foundation, Bitboy changed it, and a community decided through use which symbol would endure.

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December 2010 → June 2011

Do Not Kick the Hornet's Nest

Why Satoshi asked WikiLeaks to wait—and why the episode does not prove the reason for his departure.

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Bitcoin Core 31.0 → 31.1 · 2026

When Private Broadcast Could Reveal an IP

A transport fallback caused the flaw; a public warning and temporary mitigations were followed by a corrective release.

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Block 0 · January 3, 2009

The Newspaper Line Inside the First Block

What The Times headline in the genesis block proves—and which meanings remain interpretation.

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BIP 13 and BIP 16 · 2012 · 10 min read

P2SH: The Address That Hid Its Spending Conditions

How P2SH moved complexity from sender to receiver, made multisig payments practical, and required careful activation.

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Mining · Energy and flexible load

Bitcoin Mining and the Grid: A Consumer That Can Switch Off

Why mining uses substantial energy, how it can curtail quickly, and why that does not automatically make it helpful to every grid.

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Consensus · BIP 30 · 2010–2012

Two Transactions with One Name: the Rule Bitcoin Did Not Yet Have

How duplicate transaction identifiers exposed a gap in Bitcoin's early rules and led to BIP 30.

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BitDNS · December 2010

Why Satoshi Did Not Want to Put the Whole World in One Chain

What the BitDNS discussion revealed about blockchain boundaries, independent rules, and shared mining work.

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Mining · 2009–2024

From CPUs to ASICs: How Bitcoin's Mining Rules Changed

How home processors gave way to ASICs, the subsidy fell from 50 to 3.125 BTC, and full nodes retained the final say.

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