11 years ago the official Bitcoin white paper was released. Titled ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ it became what we today know as Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world.

11 Years For Bitcoin’s White Paper

The official white paper was released by the yet anonymous individual or group of individuals known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The white paper described a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another. Most importantly, these payments would not have to be controlled by a financial institution.

Satoshi Nakamoto explained that commerce on the internet relied exclusively on financial institutions that worked as trusted third parties allowing to process transactions.

The main weakness of this model is the trust that parties must have with the financial institution processing the transaction.

This is why Satoshi Nakamoto decided to create an electronic payment system that is based on cryptographic proof rather than on trust.

Bitcoin’s white paper reads as follows:

“What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”

Satoshi Nakamoto was thinking about a system that would protect sellers from fraud. Moreover, routine escrow mechanisms could be applied to protect buyers.

At the time the white paper was written, the world was experiencing a financial crisis in which many banks fell. This created unemployment in many countries around the world, and it affected the lives of millions of individuals.

Since that moment, Bitcoin expanded as a solution for many users around the world that are now able to send and receive payments without having to rely on a bank or traditional financial institution.

Despite the massive growth Bitcoin experienced over the last years, other competitors appeared. For example, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) supporters consider that Bitcoin must push forward with on-chain scaling solutions such as larger blocks.

At the moment, both networks are running, but Bitcoin remains by far the largest in the market. Indeed, according to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $164 billion and it has a dominance of 67.3%.

During the last 11 years, Bitcoin reached $20,000, it was accused of being used only by criminals, and large companies are hinting they could eventually use this cryptocurrency for day to day payments.