The 10 people who shaped the history of Bitcoin from the beginning

If today Bitcoin is experiencing growing success, throughout the world to the point that we are talking about a hyperbitcoinization of the world, we must not forget that it has not been an easy path.

Understanding the meaning of Bitcoin, its advantages and how it works is still not an easy thing today, but in 2009, when it was created, it was even more “incomprehensible” at first.

It took people, more visionary and curious than others, to be interested in Bitcoin to grasp its subtleties and potential. It is precisely to pay tribute to these people that we are writing this article. It is important to salute the audacity of all these people, all of whom, in their own ways, have contributed to developing the Bitcoin network and making it ever more efficient.

It is possible that without their contributions, Bitcoin would have ended up in oblivion and that we would have missed out on one of the most formidable financial inventions the world has known.

Satoshi Nakamoto

Obviously, we start this article with the creator of the Bitcoin project himself. Although we still do not know today whether it is a man, a woman or even a group, the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto has entered history.

When he published the “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” white paper in 2008, he had just invented the first decentralized digital currency. This radically transformed the nature of money, and opened the way to a completely new conception of the monetary system.

Certainly, Satoshi Nakamoto is at the origin of the creation of Bitcoin which he offered to the whole world, but without the first people who embraced his idea, perhaps he would never have known the success he until today.

Below are the people who helped Saotshi Nakamoto realize and grow Bitcoin and its ecosystem.

Gavin Andresen

Satoshi Nakamoto has stopped writing on the forums since 2010 but the last private message he sent was on April 26, 2011 and was addressed to Gavin Andresen. It was he who became the chief developer of Bitcoin Core until 2014.

Gavin Andresen is a brilliant software developer who was the first developer to work closely with Satoshi Nakamoto, from the early days of Bitcoin's launch.

It was to Gavin Andresen that Satoshi Nakamoto provided the first access to the project's source code. He played a most important role in the maintenance and development of Bitcoin software.

In order to make Bitcoin known, he is at the origin of the first site “bitcoin faucet” in which he offered free bitcoins to users. He allegedly donated more than 10,000 BTC before closing the site in 2012.

He also founded the association BitcoinFoundation in order to support different projects and updates of Bitcoin.

Hal Finney

Could we write this article on the 10 greatest personalities who shaped the history of Bitcoin if we didn't talk about Hal Finney?

Hal Finney was the first person to receive bitcoin in a transaction carried out by Satoshi Nakamoto himself. Computer scientist and passionate about the Bitcoin project, he played a decisive role in the adoption of Bitcoin. He was also the first to post on Twitter about Bitcoin with words that have since become iconic “running bitcoin”. This is a double meaning when you know that he was a big fan of running.

Hal Finney died in 2014 after battling a disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Since then, Hal Finney has been considered the godfather of Bitcoin and the letter he wrote ” Bitcoin and Me” has become a must-read for those interested in the tumultuous history of Bitcoin.

His wife regularly organizes races in honor of Hal Finney and Bitcoin to support ALS patients.

???? —> Read : “Bitcoin and me”, the famous letter from Hal Finney

Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo is one of the brightest minds who participated in the cryptographic research that led to Bitcoin. We tend to forget (or not know) that the Bitcoin Core software is the result of a series of failed attempts. Indeed, Bitcoin has ancestors including David Chaum's DigiCash, or even e-Gold in 1996, or even Wei DaiB's B-Money.

Nick Szabo is one of those who, for example, shaped concepts which were subsequently used by Satoshi Nakamoto. Indeed, Nick Szabo is the inventor in 1990 of what we call “Smart contracts” which have been very important in the development of blockchain. Other research he published on digital currencies and cryptography in general paved the way for the invention of Bitcoin.

Due to the affinities of his research with those of Nakamoto, many people believed that he was the real Satoshi Nakamoto, something he always denied.

👋 —> Read: Who is Nick Szabo: the man who invented “smart contracts”?

Laszlo Hanyecz

If you know the story of May 22 which is in bitcoin culture, the day of “Pizza Day“, then you certainly know Laszlo Hanyecz.

This computer programmer of Hungarian origin, who lives in the United States, is known for having been the first person to have made a purchase with bitcoin. It should be remembered that in 2010, buying pizzas on the Internet was not a common thing and doing so with bitcoin was still unthinkable!

He posted an ad saying he would pay 10,000 BTC to receive two pizzas, which at the time was about $40. Since then, the price of bitcoin has exploded and 10,000 bitcoins are equivalent to more than 270 million dollars today.

Even if it seems anecdotal, this first transaction marked a turning point in the history of Bitcoin because it took on for the first time the meaning for which it was created: to be an electronic currency which serves as a vector of value just like traditional currencies . This helped give some financial value to bitcoin, which it did not yet officially have at the time of this announcement.

Beyond the pizza story, you should know that Laszlo Hanyecz is a very prolific developer of Bitcoin and that he contributed, among other things, to the publication of the version of the software on MacOs.

???? —> Read: Laszlo Hanyecz, the man behind Pizza Day does not regret his choice

Adam Back

Adam Back is a renowned computer scientist and cypherpunk notorious, which is the origin of the Hashcash system. It is a proof-of-work system that served as the algorithmic basis for Bitcoin. It is admitted that without his work, the design of Bitcoin would not have been possible.

Today, Adam Back is the CEO of Blockstream, a vital company that still contributes to the development of Bitcoin today. It is a company dedicated to blockchain development and many of the updates that have made Bitcoin better are the result of Blockstream's work. The company is increasingly developingbitcoin ecosystem.

Actively participating in the Bitcoin ecosystem, Blockstream has offered many BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) to improve the network. Blockstream developers have enabled better scalability of the network by having improved the Bitcoin proof of work algorithm.

Blockstream currently employs a large number of Bitcoin core software developers and the company also participates in financing Bitcoin-related projects.

Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder of the company Lightning Labs which is a company that collaborates on the development of the Lightning Network. It is a layer 2 which allows you to add an additional layer to the Bitcoin network in order to allow faster and less expensive transactions.

The Lightning Network represents a tremendous advancement for the ecosystem as a whole and helps solve Bitcoin scalability issues.

Beyond her work for Lightning Labs, Elizabeth Stark is an influential community figure who advocates and supports Bitcoin-related open source projects. Maximalist, she is also an activist for individual and digital freedoms and carries out various militant actions in this direction.

👋 —> Read: The Complete Guide to understanding the Lightning Network and knowing how to use it ⚡

Gregory Maxwell

Greg Maxwell is a talented software engineer and cryptographer who worked on Bitcoin Core software. He was also one of the first participants on the BitcoinTalk forum where he had very in-depth technical discussions on how Bitcoin works.

Greg Maxwell participated in the creation of the protocol Confidential Transactions which made it possible to improve the confidentiality of Bitcoin transactions and he is also at the origin of the development of Segregated Witness (SegWit). He is especially renowned for having been at the origin of Coinjoin, the solution to strengthen the confidentiality of transactions.

He is the co-founder with Adam Back of the company Blockstream in which, as CTO, he works on various technical improvements of the network by examining the BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal).

Saifedean Ammous

Saifedean Ammous is an economist and author of books which have become references in the field, including one in particular: “The bitcoin standard: the decentralized alternative to central banks“. It is certainly the book on bitcoin the most popular with translation into more than 36 languages. The book explains the evolution of money and shows how Bitcoin as an electronic and digital currency fills the gaps in the contemporary global economy.

Saifedean was a professor of economics at the Lebanese American University from 2009 to 2019 and today he offers economics and bitcoin courses on his personal website Saifedean.com. ‍

He largely contributed to giving his academic credentials to economic theories related to Bitcoin. Likewise, holder of a doctorate in economics, Saifedean Ammous shows that the Intelligentsia can also consider Bitcoin as a perfectly legitimate currency.

Andreas Antonopoulos

Andreas Antonopoulos is certainly the best known of those called “bitcoin evangelists”. These are people who contributed to the start of the Bitcoin project to explain it to as many people as possible.

A graduate in computer science, Andreas Antonopoulos is an author and speaker known for the quality of his speeches and his ability to explain complicated concepts in a simple way.

His best-known book is “Mastering Bitcoin,” which has become a reference for those seeking to understand the technology used by Bitcoin. The videos of these conferences on YouTube still remain a reference work today.

A supporter and activist for decentralization and financial sovereignty, he has been involved for many years in popularizing Bitcoin. For many people, it was with Andreas Antonopoulos that they were introduced to the fascinating world of Bitcoin.

???? —> Read : Who is Andreas Antonopoulos, the best known “bitcoin evangelist”?

Final word on these 10 personalities

We could have added other personalities who also contributed to making Bitcoin known in its early days, where it was even more difficult to understand its issues and how it worked. We were not able to mention all the personalities, because we focused on the figures who had the most decisive roles. Ross Ulbricht has its place in this list, to the extent that by accepting bitcoin on its website (Silk Road), he was the first to help make bitcoin an internet payment used by thousands of people. Although its history is unusual to say the least, it helped to make Bitcoin known in a practical sense.

We could also have cited Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus” who, although he is controversial, is nonetheless one of the first popularizers of Bitcoin. We could also have cited Michael Saylor who showed, through his massive investments in Bitcoin, that companies could also invest in Bitcoin.

We also make a small mention to all the early adopters who discussed on the BitcoinTalk forum with Satoshi Nakamoto and who asked all the essential questions for its improvement. Many people involved have remained (voluntarily) anonymous but their impact is considerable in the history of Bitcoin. These are in fact the first users who were able to test the software and were able to identify implementation bugs in order to correct and update them.

It is thanks to all these people, in a collective dimension, that the Bitcoin project has been able to flourish and reach more and more people so that they can benefit from a new, more inclusive and more democratic monetary system.

🙏 Thank you