Bitcoin History: The Genesis Era
2008-08-18
The domain name bitcoin.org is anonymously registered, marking the first public appearance of the name.
2008-10-31
Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the Bitcoin whitepaper, "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," to a cryptography mailing list.
2009-01-03
The Genesis Block (Block 0) is mined, launching the Bitcoin network. It contains the famous message: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."
2009-01-10
The first-ever Bitcoin transaction occurs on Block 170. Satoshi Nakamoto sends 10 BTC to Hal Finney.
2009-01-12
Hal Finney makes the first public announcement about the software, tweeting: "Running bitcoin".
2010-05-22
The first commercial transaction takes place. Laszlo Hanyecz buys two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, an event now celebrated as "Bitcoin Pizza Day".
2010-12-12
Satoshi Nakamoto posts their final public message on the Bitcointalk forum and gradually disengages from the project.