In late 2008, the financial crisis was in full swing. In September of that year, Lehman Brothers Holdings, then the fourth-largest investment bank in the world, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As the world's financial infrastructure was crumbling, the domain bitcoin.org was registered. Later in 2008, a person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper on bitcoin to a cryptography mailing list, explaining how the cryptocurrency would work.
In early 2009, Nakamoto mined the first-ever bitcoin, known as the "genesis block." Embedded in the programming of this first bitcoin was the text "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." The text refers to a headline on that date from the British newspaper The Times, and is generally seen as proof of the date bitcoin was first mined. Others also believe it pointed to the crumbling financial infrastructure of the modern world, and the need for a new way forward. The first bitcoin transaction soon followed, when a bitcoin was sent from Nakamoto to Hal Finney, a cryptography expert and enthusiast.
To this day, Satoshi Nakamoto's identity remains a mystery. Several people have claimed to be the mysterious programmer or, as often suspected, a group of programmers; numerous attempts have been made to identify the person or group, but none have been satisfactory enough to be viewed as conclusive. The only personal details that Nakamoto gave to others were claims to be living in Japan and to have been born April 5, 1975. Nakamoto encouraged other cryptographers to assist with the coding, but the creator stepped away from bitcoin in 2011 and has not been publicly seen or heard from since. As we will soon see, Satoshi Nakamoto is not the only infamous alias in the annals of bitcoin.
