Bitcoin in 2009

In January 2009, the bitcoin network came into existence with the release of the first open source bitcoin client and the issuance of the first bitcoins, with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the first block of bitcoins ever (known as the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. Embedded in the coinbase of this block was the text:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
One of the first supporters, adopters, contributor to bitcoin and receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was programmer Hal Finney. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released, and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction. Other early supporters were Wei Dai, creator of bitcoin predecessor b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold. Before disappearing from any involvement in bitcoin, Nakamoto in a sense handed over the reins to developer Gavin Andresen, who then became the bitcoin lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation, the 'anarchic' bitcoin community's closest thing to an official public face.

How much was bitcoin worth in 2009? It is one of the most popular questions about the history Bitcoin. The value of the first bitcoin transactions were negotiated by individuals on the bitcoin forum with one notable transaction of 10,000 BTC used to indirectly purchase two pizzas delivered by Papa John's. This was the only major security flaw found and exploited in bitcoin's history.

  • January 3rd The genesis block – the first block in the bitcoin blockchain – appears. 50 BTC are generated at 18:15:05 (GMT).
  • January 9th The first version, Bitcoin v0.1., is issued.
  • January 12th First bitcoin transaction, (block #170). Sender is Satoshi Nakamoto. Receiver is Hal Finney.
  • October 5th The first Bitcoin course towards exchange dollar is published: 1 USD = 1,309.03 BTC. A public sale is launched on New Liberty Standard stock exchange.
  • October 9th The #bitcoin-de channel is registered on IRC.
  • December 16th Bitcoin v0.2. appears.

Bitcoin in 2010

  • February 6th Bitcoin Market, the first official cryptocurrency stock exchange, is launched.
  • May 22nd First online purchase using bitcoin. Laszlo Hanyecz (indireclty) buys Papa John's pizza for 10,000 coins (25 USD – Bitcoin value was 0.0025 cents for 1 coin).
  • July 11th Bitcoin v0.3. is mentioned on news website Slashdot.org. The number of bitcoin users increases significantly.
  • July 12th Bitcoin exchange rate increases 10 times in ten days, from 0.008 USD per BTC to 0.08 USD per BTC.
  • July 17th MtGox Cryptocurrency exchange is launched.
  • August 15th A bug in bitcoin code results in a “dirty” transaction in block # 74638. Users easily find the mistake, correct the code and “clean” the block.
  • September 14th User jgarzik offers user puddingpop 10,000 coins (600-650 USD) to open their common customer CUDA in Windows base. The first block with assigned distribution, block # 79764, is mined.
  • September 18th User puddingpop announces opening of the CUDA customer on Windows base under the MITd license.
  • September 29th User kermit finds invasion in micro transaction, after version v0.3.13 is launched.
  • October 1st First public miner, Open CL, is created.
  • October 7th Bitcoin exchange rate begins to escalate, after several months stuck at USD $0.06 per BTC.
  • October 16th First Bitcoin deposit is registered: a deal between users nanotube and Diabo-3, with user theymos as .
  • October 17th #bitcoin-otc trade channel appears on IRC freenode.
  • October 28th First short trade transaction: 100 coins between users nanotube and kiba on #bitcoin-otc.
  • November 6th Bitcoin share capital reaches 1 million USD. Its exchange rate on MtGox reaches USD$0.50 per BTC.
  • December 7th User doublec creates a Bitcoin app for the Nokia N900. User ribuck sends 0.42 BTC in the first ever P2P transaction with the help of mobile device.
  • December 9th First open call-agreement contract signed between users nanotube and sgornick on #bitcoin-otc.
  • December 16th First block generated by mining pool under user sluch.