Bitcoin’s birthday: Satoshi Nakamoto’s hidden message in the genesis block

When Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Genesis Block on January 3, 2009, he left a timestamp of that day, citing the front page of The Times.

The message of “Chancellor about to give banks a second bailout” had a deeper meaning that still resonates with passionate Bitcoiners years later.

Satoshi Nakamoto's symbolic Bitcoin message

Although Bitcoin has gained increasing attention since 2009, many mysteries remain surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto.

January 3 marks Bitcoin’s twelfth anniversary, but Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity remains unknown.

Whoever Satoshi Nakamoto is, it is widely believed that he or they have disdain for the traditional financial system.

They released the Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31, 2008, just as the world was experiencing a global financial crisis. By late 2010, Satoshi had disappeared, still unwilling to stake his claim to the groundbreaking monetary system they had created.

The message trail left by Satoshi Nakamoto before his sudden disappearance has led many to believe that Bitcoin was a response to the events of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. On the message board of the P2P Foundation, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a memorable post in February 2009 introducing Bitcoin.

In it, they expressed their unease at not trusting the Reserve Bank:

“Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with little in reserve. We must trust them with our privacy and not let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive intermediary fees make small payments impossible.”

Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin’s genesis block at 18:15:05 UTC on January 3, 2009. This moment will become a cornerstone of Bitcoin’s history.

There are several unique features of this block, also known as Block 0. The 50 BTC mining reward generated by the first transaction has become unusable. Although the reason for this has been a topic of debate among Bitcoiners, it is very likely that Satoshi Nakamoto explained this special situation to the programmers in their plans.

New blocks were generated every 10 minutes on average, but it took six days to find the next block on the chain. The reason behind this is also a mystery.

Some have even suggested there may be a religious connection: In the Book of Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rested for one day.

Notably, Satoshi Nakamoto only publicly announced Bitcoin to the “Cryptography Mailing List” on January 9, the same day the next block on the Bitcoin blockchain was discovered.

January 3, 2009

The most famous feature of the genesis block is the message left by Satoshi Nakamoto in its coinbase parameter, which reads as follows:

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

The Times

When its hex string is converted to text, the same message appears in reverse on line 1616:

"sklob rof tuoliab dnoces fo knirb no rollecnahC 9002/naJ/30 semiT ehT."

This subtle note provides an unchangeable timestamp for the genesis block by referencing the front page of The Times on January 3, 2009.

But it may have another hidden meaning. In their online messages, Satoshi Nakamoto made it clear that he was not a fan of the financial system, so it is no exaggeration to say that they already described Bitcoin as a product of fighting against the failed centralized financial system at the time.

If they did create Bitcoin in response to the financial crisis, they would be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate message to release.

Like Bitcoin itself, that original copy of The Times from January 3, 2009 is worth much more now than it was in 2009.

That’s because they’re both wildly popular and extremely rare. Over the years, a handful have popped up on Bitcoin fan forums, albeit far and few between.

There is also a dedicated website where some original newspaper editions are listed with certificates of authenticity. Prices range from $250,000 to over $1 million.

"The value is based on scarcity," the website says. "There are only 8 verified printings of this newspaper."

Satoshi Nakamoto would make his final public post on the bitcointalk.org forum in December 2010, keeping his identity secret even as bitcoin began to attract widespread interest. While their deeper motivations for creating the digital currency remain unclear to this day, the Times quote is just one of several clues that hint at their intentions.

What is indisputable is that Satoshi Nakamoto laid the foundation for the gravity of the monetary revolution.