The domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered on 18 august 2008. On 31 October 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system was posted to a cryptography mailing list. Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open-source code and released it in January 2009. Nakamoto's identity remains unknown.

On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network was created when Nakamoto mined the first block of the chain, known as the GENESIS BLOCK, embedded in the coinbase of this block was the following text: "the times 03/Jan/2009 chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This note has been interpreted as both a timestamp and a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking. The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was Cypherpunk Hal Finney, who created the first reusable proof-of-work system (rPOW) in 2004. Finney downloaded the Bitcoin software on its release date, and on January 12, 2009 received ten (10) Bitcoins from Nakamoto. Other early Cypherpunk supporters were creators of Bitcoin predecessors: Wei Dai, creator of B-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of Bitgold. In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.

Satoshi working on the Bitcoin Logo; “How does everyone feel about the B symbol with the two lines through the outside?” ₿