Bitcoin explained- the origin story

Why was Bitcoin created?

Bitcoin was created with the purpose of allowing users to store, send, and receive money without the involvement of any banks or credit card companies. The benefit of using Bitcoin over traditional banks or credit card companies is that it saves time and money, skipping the cumbersome financial system.

Before the proliferation of Bitcoin, banks and credit card companies or private companies such as Paypal or Venmo, allowed users to send money. However, these companies had to check acount balances to first verify that the person spending the money actually had that money in their account.

Banks have high costs as they have to maintain their offices, highly paid management, workers, and lawyers. All of these necessary components of banks and credit card companies are paid by fees from consumers. Additionally, banks even are able to limit how much money you are able to access and where you can send your money.

Who created Bitcoin?

An anonymous individual named Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin. Satoshi registered the domain bitcoin.org in August of 2008. No one knows who this person is and their identity is entirely a mystery. It is possible that Satoshi is male, female, or even a group of people.

The following November, Satoshi posted the Bitcoin Whitepaper (a document that essentially describes the service and why it should be used/invested in).

In January 2009, the first Bitcoins were issued. Since the first Bitcoin code had the embedded message, “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”, many suspect that Bitcoin was created as a result of the 2008 financial crisis.