Tela Network
Thread: Bitcoin
Showing posts 1-8 of 8 (oldest first)
#111
| 2026-03-16 19:33:32 UTC
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Bitcoin is the first modern monetary system that is outside of the political co…
Bitcoin is the first modern monetary system that is outside of the political control of any state.
In the pre-modern era (earlier than the French Revolution), gold (and to some extent silver) was above the state. If the state issued too much currency, its value would visibly decrease relative to gold.
However, tech advancement caused gold to become too difficult to protect on a small scale. Gold centralized into a few major locations inside states. It became impossible for an individual to escape the effect of money printing.
Inflation is effectively another tax. (It also destroys the measuring stick that we use for value, and therefore for business.)
For most young people, a house is out of reach. This was one of the only remaining ways to escape (somewhat, and badly) the debasement of inflation.
For the next 15-30 years, despite the scams / fear / uncertainty / doubt, I think that Bitcoin will remain the most achievable method available to a young person to save for the future.
#114
| 2026-03-24 08:28:14 UTC
1 reply
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StJohn Piano
I think the primary inspiration for Bitcoin was Adam Back's Hashcash, not Wei Dai's b-money. …
Friday, August 22, 2008 4:38 PM
1) Satoshi Nakamoto to Wei Dai
"I was very int…
Friday, August 22, 2008 4:38 PM
1) Satoshi Nakamoto to Wei Dai
"I was very interested to read your b-money page. I'm getting ready to release a paper that expands on your ideas into a complete working system."
2013-04-18
2) Adam Back posted to the BitcoinTalk forums a self-introduction mentioning that
"I believe it was me who got Wei Dai's b-money reference added to Satoshi's bitcoin paper when he emailed me about hashcash back in 2008"
"the actual bitcoin mining is basically my hashcash invention..."
3) bitcoin.org was registered on 2008-08-18.
4) b-money:
http://www.weidai.com/bmoney.txt
5) b-money was announced on the cypherpunks mailing list in 1998.
https://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1998/11/msg00941.html
6) Adam Back's commentary on b-money:
https://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1998/12/msg00203.html
Source:
Wei Dai/Satoshi Nakamoto 2009 Bitcoin emails
https://gwern.net/doc/bitcoin/2008-nakamoto
#43
| 2025-08-02 16:52:05 UTC
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Excerpt from an email by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Subject: Bitcoin v0.1 released
D…
Excerpt from an email by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Subject: Bitcoin v0.1 released
Datetime: Fri Jan 16 11:03:14 EST 2009
It contains some ideas on initial applications of blockchain-as-money.
---
I would be surprised if 10 years from now we're not using electronic currency in some way, now that we know a way to do it that won't inevitably get dumbed down when the trusted third party gets cold feet.
It could get started in a narrow niche like reward points, donation tokens, currency for a game or micropayments for adult sites. Initially it can be used in proof-of-work applications for services that could almost be free but not quite.
It can already be used for pay-to-send e-mail.
...
Subscription sites that need some extra proof-of-work for their free trial so it doesn't cannibalize subscriptions could charge bitcoins for the trial.
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Source:
https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/015014.html
#55
| 2025-08-28 07:10:05 UTC
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1 validation
1 repost
Protocol:
- Each block creates new coins (the "block reward") in its "coinbase …
Protocol:
- Each block creates new coins (the "block reward") in its "coinbase transaction".
- The block reward was initially at 50 BTC per block.
- Every 210,000 blocks (~4 years), the reward is halved.
- This halving produces a geometric series that converges to a maximum of 21 million BTC.
Enforcement:
- Bitcoin nodes run the protocol code.
- The code defines the block reward formula and enforces it.
- A miner who tries to claim more than the allowed reward will simply produce an invalid block.
- Other nodes reject that block, and the miner gets nothing.
Note:
- A subgroup of nodes can choose to set a higher limit, producing a hard fork, resulting in a new network, with the same addresses and balances. This has already happened at least twice. However, the original network offers a "harder" asset (due to its lower limit) and over time wins in terms of stored value and market interest. Holders will tend to sell the forked asset.
Validated by
✓
Nicholas Piano
30 Aug 2025
Reposted on
#118
| 2026-03-31 07:56:51 UTC
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I think the primary inspiration for Bitcoin was Adam Back's Hashcash, not Wei D…
I think the primary inspiration for Bitcoin was Adam Back's Hashcash, not Wei Dai's b-money.
1) Satoshi's email to Wei Dai indicates that he had not previously read the b-money post:
"I was very interested to read your b-money page. ... Adam Back (hashcash.org) noticed the similarities and pointed me to your site."
2) The Bitcoin whitepaper cites b-money only as support:
"transactions must be publicly announced [1]"
3) The Bitcoin whitepaper cites Hashcash by name:
"a proof-of-work system similar to Adam Back's Hashcash"
4) The format and style of the Bitcoin whitepaper closely matches the Hashcash paper. In contrast, the b-money post is plaintext.
http://www.hashcash.org/papers/hashcash.pdf
NB: The Hashcash paper cites b-money.
5) Satoshi's first post cites Hashcash by name:
"New coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work."
https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-October/014810.html
#119
| 2026-04-01 06:44:10 UTC
1 reply
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StJohn Piano
Q: All previous attempts to create independent digital currencies were made illegal. Why is Bitcoin …
is that digital money requires credible history.
Satoshi found that:
- the cen…
is that digital money requires credible history.
Satoshi found that:
- the central problem of digital money is the double-spending attack
- the central requirement for a solution is a trustworthy source of transaction ordering - a timestamp server
From these two aspects flow these points in the Bitcoin whitepaper:
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- "a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server"
- "computational proof of the chronological order of transactions"
- "The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes."
- "We define an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures."
- "The only way to confirm the absence of a transaction is to be aware of all transactions."
- "To implement a distributed timestamp server on a peer-to-peer basis, we will need to use a proof-of-work system"
- "Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote."
- "Nodes always consider the longest chain to be the correct one"
#121
| 2026-04-03 07:44:52 UTC
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Q: All previous attempts to create independent digital currencies were made ill…
Q: All previous attempts to create independent digital currencies were made illegal. Why is Bitcoin still legal ?
A:
They didn't fail because they were made illegal. They failed because they could be made illegal. Satoshi's emphasis in the abstract of his paper is perfect. He solved the double spend problem, which was the last piece in the puzzle that neither Wei Dai nor Nick Szabo nor a teenage Peter Todd could figure out. Solving it removed the need to trust a centralised third party.
Listen to Peter Todd's interview with Peter McCormack on What Bitcoin Did.
Peter Todd thought the fundamental problem was limiting the issuance of new currency. But Satoshi realised the real problem was more broad - how do we make it expensive to update the ledger (which includes but is not limited to issuing new currency). He did this using proof of work as a mechanism to update the blockchain.
Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/amzrmu/in_1998_wei_dai_came_up_with_his_ingenious_idea
#122
| 2026-04-04 06:51:01 UTC
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Borges: What's your opinion, StJohn?
StJohn Piano:
If quantum computing can c…
Borges: What's your opinion, StJohn?
StJohn Piano:
If quantum computing can crack public keys, that means all modern banking systems have a really bad time.
People always do the "quantum computing will be the end of Bitcoin" interpretative dance, but seem incapable of making the mental connection to the existing banking system, which also runs on cryptography.
Some version of this story has been published regularly since Bitcoin began.
A lot of it is clickbait: combine "quantum" and "Bitcoin" for maximum effect, with a side order of "haha Bitcoin is going to break you guys".
There's definitely a scenario where quantum computing becomes a problem for Bitcoin.
But focusing on Bitcoin here is remarkably shortsighted, because that scenario would be a nuclear wasteland for the rest of the financial and digital infrastructure as well.