The whitepaper

In plain words

On October 31, 2008, a name without a face posted nine pages: "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." It showed how strangers could run money together — a public chain of blocks, mining to fix the order of payments, no bank asked and none needed. The network went live two months later. It has followed the blueprint since.

Why it matters

• The founding document — still the cleanest account of how Bitcoin works.
• Published mid-crisis, weeks after Lehman Brothers fell.
• A motivated beginner can read it in an afternoon.

Go deeper

• The whitepaper itself — read the original.
• Satoshi Nakamoto
• The genesis block