The story of the creation of Bitcoin reads as an unsolved mystery. Although some have claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, the real life identity is yet to be proven. Bitcoin would be released to the public in 2009, but it started life in the wake of the 2007 financial crash. The first block ever mined contained the following message “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”
The goal was to build a better monetary system – true peer-to-peer digital money. In April of 2011, while Bitcoin was reaching $1,00 per Bitcoin, creator Satoshi Nakamoto made his last known contact, never to be heard from again.
In his last known contact, an email to early Bitcoin developers, he claimed to move on to better things and the project was left in good hands. To this very day, researchers are trying to figure out who is behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Some claim it is an individual, and some claim it is a group of individuals.
The Story of Vitalik
Ethereum was invented by Vitalik Buterin, a young programmer who took an early interest in Bitcoin. What is interesting, is that Vitalik first sought to contribute to Bitcoin by implementing the features that make up Ethereum. When the Bitcoin core devs were not open to the proposals, he created Ethereum which is now the 2nd largest cryptocurrency.
The Ethereum whitepaper was released in 2013, which was 4 years after Bitcoins initial release. The idea behind Ethereum was to create a blockchain that allowed apps to run on top of the blockchain, instead of traditional servers. In order to facilitate this, Ethereum created smart-contracts and a full featured programming language called Solidity.
The crypto community was excited about Ethereum and crowdfunded its development. Many prominent people jumped on board as co-founders, and the rest is history.
The Significance of Satoshi and Vitaliks contributions
The efforts and inventions by Satoshi and Vitalik have created a whole new industry that grows larger every year. Many have compared it to the creation of the internet. Today thousands of cryptocurrencies exist and companies all over the world are implementing blockchain technology. It is safe to say blockchain is just getting started.