Whitepaper

The nine-page document by Satoshi Nakamoto that introduced Bitcoin in 2008: "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System."

The Bitcoin whitepaper is the founding document of Bitcoin, titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." It was published by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto on 31 October 2008 and is just nine pages long. It set out, for the first time, how digital cash could work without a bank or any trusted middleman.

Its core contribution is solving the "double-spend" problem — stopping someone from spending the same digital coin twice — without a central authority. The paper describes using a peer-to-peer network and proof-of-work to build a public, ordered chain of transactions that no single party controls and that becomes harder to rewrite the longer it grows.

Bitcoin's software launched a few months later, in January 2009, implementing the design. The whitepaper remains short, readable, and widely studied — it is often the first thing newcomers are pointed to, and a copy is bundled with the Bitcoin software itself.

ExampleAt just nine pages and published on 31 October 2008, the whitepaper is usually the first primary source a newcomer is sent to read.

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Related terms

Glossary

Satoshi

Two meanings: (1) the smallest unit of Bitcoin (1/100,000,000 BTC), and (2) the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin.

Glossary

Bitcoin

A peer-to-peer digital currency invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. The first money in human history with a fixed supply.

Glossary

Node

A computer running Bitcoin software that stores and verifies the entire blockchain.

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