Dustin Trammell à l'occasion de la journée originale du livre blanc, correspondant à Satoshi et au besoin croissant de Bitcoin

Le 31 octobre 2008, le pseudonyme Satoshi Nakamoto soumis leur white paper outlining “Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System” à Liste de diffusion de cryptographie de Metzdowd.com. Peu de temps après le lancement du projet en janvier 2009, un abonné à la liste de diffusion nommé Dustin Trammel began contributing to the project, asking questions and submitting bugs to the paper’s author and becoming one of the first people on earth to be “orange pilled” by Bitcoin’s formative outline.

"Lorsque je l'ai lu pour la première fois, je me souviens avoir été impressionné que quelqu'un ait découvert un moyen d'éviter les doubles dépenses avec la monnaie numérique", se souvient Trammell. "Étant d'esprit assez libertaire et intéressé par les monnaies et les systèmes économiques alternatifs, j'étais ravi que le logiciel soit publié afin que je puisse le voir en action."

L'article de Nakamoto a décrit une vision de la monnaie numérique qui permettrait des paiements directs entre les parties "sans passer par une institution financière". Il a expliqué les rôles potentiels des signatures numériques, un réseau de nœuds filtrant les transactions valides et les incitations des récompenses globales et des frais de transaction. Et, en regardant en arrière quelque 14 ans plus tard, d'autres aspects de l'introduction semblent également particulièrement prémonitoires à Trammell.

"Quand j'ai lu l'article pour la première fois, l'importance du mécanisme de consensus de preuve de travail n'était pas vraiment perçue, alors qu'aujourd'hui j'ai réalisé que le consensus de preuve de travail est vraiment l'innovation", a-t-il déclaré. "J'ai aussi d'abord lu le document avec un œil plus attentif à la technologie, alors qu'en le lisant aujourd'hui, il est un peu plus évident qu'il y avait aussi une philosophie de décentralisation généralisée inhérente."

Correspondant avec Satoshi

Trammel, alias Je) ruine, est un chercheur en sécurité de l'information, un capital-risqueur et un cosplayeur passionné. Cette inaugurale Journée du livre blanc (as October 31 is now known in the Bitcoin community) served as his introduction to digital currencies, but he quickly found that the project sparked an enduring interest. He became one of the first Bitcoin miners, back when it was possible to successfully find blocks with a CPU, and he received bitcoin directly from Nakamoto.

“From my brief correspondence with Satoshi, they seemed to have a very pragmatic view of technology and seemed to be open-minded to suggestions and advice, whether they ended up going that direction or not,” Trammell explained. “Satoshi and I specifically had some conversation around the insecurities of the ability to send bitcoin by IP address, and Satoshi ended up dropping that feature from the software entirely.”

Sur la base de cette expérience originale, Trammell encourage tous ceux qui célèbrent la Journée du livre blanc de cette année à considérer le travail fondateur de Nakamoto comme un plan pratique, décrivant un projet qui devrait être quelque peu susceptible de changer s'il a l'adhésion de sa communauté.

“I think had Satoshi stuck around longer than they did, they would have been open minded and willing to work with the consensus of the Bitcoin developer community to take Bitcoin in the direction that was best for Bitcoin, whether it stuck to the original outline of the white paper or not,” he said. “I think Satoshi was pragmatic enough to do what they thought was right for Bitcoin at the time and under potentially ever-changing circumstances.”

D'une liste de diffusion Cypherpunk à 396 milliards de dollars

Malgré ses débuts peu propices et sa nature simple - contenant moins de 3,500 XNUMX mots tout en introduisant les fondements de la technologie blockchain et un Actif de 396 milliards de dollars to the world — the Bitcoin white paper has come to be akin to a religious text among diehard Bitcoiners, and it has inspired pale imitations from countless altcoin pumpers. Hosting the white paper text has become an acte de défiance contre ceux qui pourraient tenter de coopter la révolution open source et, en tant que l'un des rares messages de Nakamoto au monde, il est devenu bien plus qu'une feuille de route technique.

But for Trammell, “Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System” ranks as a dictionary-definition white paper, despite any reading between the lines that Bitcoin Core’s proponents or detractors may attempt.

“White papers are essentially a technical description of a problem and a proposed solution to that problem, and Satoshi’s Bitcoin white paper fits that definition perfectly,” he explained. “Anyone that then tries to pigeonhole a technical project into a white paper’s original definition or description of it, like for example the ‘Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision’ folks, are inhibiting the project’s growth and development, and ultimately its success. Technology rarely can continue succeeding without modification, and must be free of constraints to do so, such as any perceived limitation of its original design documentation.”

Célébration de la Journée du livre blanc, 14 ans plus tard

With a unique perspective on how the idea of Bitcoin resonated in 2008 compared to today, Trammell noted that, if anything, Nakamoto’s invention is even more desperately needed now than when it was first introduced.

“The economic environment seems much more dire today than then,” he explained. “Obviously, Bitcoin was released during the 2008 economic crisis, but since then we’ve had multiple other crises, and today we’re actively observing fiat currencies fail around the world… This seems to be a near-perfect storm of the economic environment within which Bitcoin was designed to thrive.”

Still, it is a uniquely Bitcoin thing to do to commemorate the publication date of a brief technical document as much of the world is turning its attention to spooky costumes and trick or treating. But refocusing on Bitcoin’s humble, pseudonymous introduction, its technical underpinnings and quietly-revolutionary fundamentals can serve this community well, as long as the simplicity of its origins aren’t overblown.

“As a big fan of Bitcoin-themed holidays and a big fan of Halloween, I now celebrate both holidays on October 31,” Trammell said. “While the Bitcoin white paper is obviously a very important historical and technical document, we need to remember that it is what it was, which is simply a white paper. It’s a statement of a problem, and a proposed technical solution. Satoshi also coded the solution and released it to the world, and shepherded it for a short time, but beyond that, Bitcoin has a life of its own and technology toujours grandit au-delà de sa spécification d'origine, de sa fonction d'origine et de sa communauté d'origine, y compris ses fondateurs. C'est la nature de la technologie.