From conceptual precursors to the genesis block. Click events for details.
1997–2005
Conceptual Precursors
Ideas like Hashcash (Adam Back, 1997), b-money (Wei Dai, 1998), and Bit Gold (Nick Szabo, 1998–2005) laid the groundwork for proof-of-work, decentralized money, and digital scarcity—key elements Satoshi integrated into Bitcoin.
August 18, 2008
Domain Registration
The domain bitcoin.org was registered, marking the first public step toward Bitcoin's creation amid the 2008 financial crisis.
October 31, 2008
Whitepaper Published
Satoshi Nakamoto posted "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" to the cryptography mailing list, outlining a decentralized system to solve double-spending without trusted parties.
November 9, 2008
Project on SourceForge
The Bitcoin project was registered on SourceForge.net, setting the stage for open-source development.
January 3, 2009
Genesis Block Mined
Block 0 launched the network. Coinbase message: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." Reward: 50 BTC (unspendable). Hash: 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f. Timestamp: 18:15:05 UTC.