# How Bitcoin Started

By [kingoffall2](https://paragraph.com/@kingoffall2) · 2023-04-24

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Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency created and is now the most traded and well-known. It was first launched in January 2009 by a computer programmer or group of programmers under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, whose actual identity has never been verified. 

A 2008 white paper by Bitcoin's mysterious creator originally revealed the blockchain system that would be the backbone of the cryptocurrency market. A [blockchain](https://money.usnews.com/investing/term/blockchain) is a digital ledger of transactions that is replicated and distributed across a network of computer systems to secure information.

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*Originally published on [kingoffall2](https://paragraph.com/@kingoffall2/how-bitcoin-started-2)*