This week, the discussion among cryptocurrency supporters has shifted to an early version of the source code of Bitcoin. There was an old mailing list letter and forum post written by Satoshi himself that somehow hints on a private version of the code. The code reached a few people before the network had its official launching on Jan. 3, 2009.

Early Access?

Bitcoiners have wondered whether the original Bitcoin source code reached some people even before the official Bitcoin launch. The statement “I sent you the main files” from Satoshi’s Nov. 17, 2008 statement sparks heated debate. This was Satoshi’s response to James A. Donald in the Bitcointalk.org forum. In fact, in a statement addressed by Satoshi to a Bitcointalk.org member named Cryddit, the term “timechain” most likely referred to what we know now as “blockchain.” The term “nodes” also referred to “bitcoin miners” as we know them now.

Additionally, Satoshi named the smaller units of Bitcoin as “coin” and “cent” instead of “satoshis,” which is what most people use today. In fact, there are also unknown terms like “atoms” and “user reviews” and these may refer to a particular form of the rating system.

The original Bitcoin software had an installed IRC client for easy bootstrap messaging. Furthermore, the planned P2P market for Bitcoin as well as the built-in virtual poker game never happened after the official launch. Later on, they got rid of the IRC client too. No one knows why Satoshi decided to remove these. The pre-distributed code basically gives more insight into what Satoshi was thinking before he created Bitcoin.

