About bitcoin.org

Bitcoin.org is dedicated to help Bitcoin to develop in a sustainable way.

Who owns bitcoin.org?

Bitcoin.org was originally registered and owned by Bitcoin's first two developers, Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi.
When Nakamoto left the project, he gave ownership of the domain to
additional people, separate from the Bitcoin developers, to spread
responsibility and prevent any one person or group from easily gaining
control over the Bitcoin project.



From 2011 to 2013, the site was primarily used for releasing new
versions of the software now called Bitcoin Core. In 2013, the site was
redesigned into its current form, adding numerous pages, listing
additional Bitcoin software, and creating the translation system.


Developer documentation was added in 2014.
Today the site is an independent open source project with
contributors from around the world. Final publication authority is held
by the co-owners, but all regular activity is organized through the
public pull request process and managed by the site co-maintainers.


Bitcoin.org is not Bitcoin's official website. Just like nobody
owns the email technology, nobody owns the Bitcoin network. As such,
nobody can speak with authority in the name of Bitcoin.

Then... who controls Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is controlled by all Bitcoin users around the world.
Developers are improving the software but they can't force a change in
the rules of the Bitcoin protocol because all users are free to choose
what software they use. In order to stay compatible with each other, all
users need to use software complying with the same rules.

Bitcoin can
only work decently with a complete consensus between all users.
Therefore, all users and developers have strong incentives to adopt and
protect this consensus.

Mission

• Inform users to protect them from common mistakes.
• Give an accurate description of Bitcoin properties, potential uses and limitations.
• Display transparent alerts and events regarding the Bitcoin network.
• Invite talented humans to help with Bitcoin development at many levels.
• Provide visibility to the large scale Bitcoin ecosystem.
• Improve Bitcoin worldwide accessibility with internationalization.
• Remain a neutral informative resource about Bitcoin.

Help us

You can report any problem or help to improve bitcoin.org on GitHub
by opening an issue or a pull request in English. When submitting a
pull request, please take required time to discuss your changes and
adapt your work. You can help with translations by joining a team on Transifex.



Please don't ask for promotion for your personal business or website,
except for special cases like conferences. Many thanks to all
contributors who are spending time improving bitcoin.org!

On 18 August 2008, the domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered.[27] In November that year, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System[15] was posted to a cryptography mailing list.

[27]Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open source code and released it in January 2009.[28][11] The identity of Nakamoto remains unknown.[10]In January 2009, the bitcoin network came into existence after Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first ever block on the chain, known as the genesis block, for a reward of 50 bitcoins.[29][30] Embedded in the coinbase of this block was the following text:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.[11]

This note has been interpreted as both a timestamp of the genesis date and a derisive comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.[31]One of the first supporters, adopters, and contributors to bitcoin was the receiver of the first bitcoin transaction, programmer Hal Finney.

Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released, and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction.[32][33] Other early supporters were Wei Dai, creator of bitcoin predecessor b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold.

[34]In the early days, Nakamoto is estimated to have mined 1 million bitcoins.[35] In 2010, Nakamoto handed the network alert key and control of the Bitcoin Core code repository over to Gavin Andresen, who later became lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation.[36][37] Nakamoto subsequently disappeared from any involvement in bitcoin.

[38] Andresen stated he then sought to decentralize control, saying: "As soon as Satoshi stepped back and threw the project onto my shoulders, one of the first things I did was try to decentralize that. So, if I get hit by a bus, it would be clear that the project would go on."[38] This left opportunity for controversy to develop over the future development path of bitcoin.

[39]The value of the first bitcoin transactions were negotiated by individuals on the bitcointalk forums with one notable transaction of 10,000 BTC used to indirectly purchase two pizzas delivered by Papa John's.[29]

On 6 August 2010, a major vulnerability in the bitcoin protocol was spotted.

Transactions were not properly verified before they were included in the blockchain, which let users bypass bitcoin's economic restrictions and create an indefinite number of bitcoins.[40][41] On 15 August, the vulnerability was exploited; over 184 billion bitcoins were generated in a single transaction, and sent to two addresses on the network.

Within hours, the transaction was spotted and erased from the transaction log after the bug was fixed and the network forked to an updated version of the bitcoin protocol.[42][40][41]On 1 August 2017, a hard fork of bitcoin was created, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash has a larger blocksize limit and had an identical blockchain at the time of fork. [43][44][45]

Continue reading on Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin