Bitcoin went live on January 3, 2009. This was the day that Satoshi Nakamoto generated the first Bitcoin block, in which he encoded the message:
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
-taken from the title of an article on the front page of one of London’s best-known daily newspapers: The Times.
Why this message? Why this particular headline?
Although the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is unknown, meaning we of course can’t ask him to be sure, his message is most likely a reflection of his (and many other’s) anger about the vast amounts of money being newly created and unfairly (unjustly even) given to banks via quantitative easing: thereby reinforcing the entities that (many would say) corrupt the very system they’re meant to protect.
Perhaps a better system is due: one where money is finite, in which new money cannot be created at the whims of central banks and governments.
His message also had another nuance of course:
Welcome to Bitcoin!
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