💡 “What is #Bitcoin, really?” To understand it, you need to know where it came from. This is the story of how one anonymous message board post changed the world forever. 🧵

The world’s first decentralized digital currency didn’t come out of nowhere. #Bitcoin was born out of decades of failed experiments, cryptography breakthroughs, and growing distrust in centralized systems.

⛓️ The Cypherpunks In the 90s, a group of privacy-obsessed cryptographers and hackers known as the Cypherpunks began working on tools to free individuals from surveillance and censorship. They believed in using code as a shield against centralized power.

🧪 Early digital money attempts: • eCash (1990s) by @chaumdotcom • b-money by @_weidai • Hashcash by @adam3us (proof-of-work system to prevent spam) • Bit Gold by @NickSzabo4 All contributed critical ideas but none solved everything.

Then came 2008. 💥 The global financial system collapses. Banks are bailed out. Trust in institutions hits a low. Just weeks later, an anonymous figure named Satoshi Nakamoto publishes a whitepaper: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”

📜 The #Bitcoin whitepaper (Oct 31, 2008) proposed: • A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash • No intermediaries • Digital scarcity via a capped supply • Trustless consensus through Proof-of-Work

On January 3, 2009, #Bitcoin goes live. Satoshi mines the Genesis Block. Embedded in its code is a message: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” A timestamp. A protest. A mission statement.

Early adopters included cryptographers, libertarians, coders, and digital misfits. #Bitcoin had no price. No exchange. No app. Just raw code and conviction. One early transaction? 10,000 BTC for two pizzas. 🍕

#Bitcoin slowly gained traction: • 2010: First real exchange opens (Mt. Gox) • 2011–13: Wikileaks and Silk Road boost usage • 2013: Reaches $1,000 then crashes • 2017: Hits $20,000 and crashes again • 2021: Reaches $69,000 Volatile? Yes. Dead? Never.

What makes #Bitcoin revolutionary? • It’s decentralized • It’s censorship-resistant • It has digital scarcity (21M BTC cap) • It runs on open-source code • It doesn’t need permission to use

#Bitcoin is more than price action. It’s a monetary protocol. • A protest against centralized control. • A lifeline for the unbanked. • A tool for self-sovereignty in a digital age.

From cypherpunk mailing lists to institutional portfolios… From a 9-page PDF to a multi-trillion-dollar asset class… #Bitcoin isn’t just money. It’s an idea whose time has come.

📚 Want to go deeper? Read the Bitcoin Whitepaper “The Bitcoin Standard” by @saifedean "Shelling Out” by @NickSzabo4 “Digital Gold” by @nathanielpopper

Special mention to @bitcoinanatomy for this animation. 👏