How to use this site

On this site you will find primary sources on Satoshi Nakamoto and early Bitcoin (emails, forum posts, papers, and more), along with pages in which the site's editors interpret them. Links on every page lead to the related records and readings. This page suggests where to start and explains how to follow those links.

Where to start

• “Where to begin” on the home page — The major events in the order they happened, from the release of the whitepaper to Satoshi's last email. “See the FAQ” in the same section opens a page of common questions and their answers.
• Guides — A series that explains how Bitcoin works, written for readers with no technical background. You can read it in order from the first page.
• Design documents — A series that explains Bitcoin's design. Start with the overview of the whole system, then go on to whichever part interests you, such as the peer-to-peer network, transactions, or consensus.

Finding a record

To find a record, use the menu at the top of the page. On a phone or other narrow screen, tap “☰” at the top left to open the menu.

“Search · All Entries” in the menu lists every entry (every record and reading), with a search box at the top of the page. You can search by a person's name or by any word in the text. You can narrow the list by type or by source, and checking “Satoshi only” shows only what Satoshi wrote. The list can be sorted by the date of the record, the date it was added, or the date it was last updated.

From the menu you can also open these lists. On wide screens, they are grouped under “Browse.”

• By Type — Entries by type. Under “By Type” in the menu, every type is listed, grouped into editorial readings (articles, analyses, biographies, and others) and primary sources (forum posts, private correspondence, mailing lists, and others). The By Type page puts the same types in a single list, sorted by number of entries or by name.
• By Source — Entries by where each record came from, with a description of each source, such as BitcoinTalk or a mailing-list archive.
• Figures — The people who appear in the records.
• Tags — Entries by topic. The menu shows only the featured tags; the others are under “All tags.”
• Defines — A list of terms and people. Choose one to find the page that explains it most fully (see “Figures and defined terms” below).

A map of the whole site shows every record, reading, person, and thread, with a line for each connection between two pages. Click a dot to see which pages it connects to, then open any of them.

Reading an entry

Every page for a record or a reading (an entry) is laid out the same way.

Under the title

Right under the title you'll find the entry's type, its source (where the record came from), the date of the record, the date it was added to this site, and the date it was last updated. All times are given in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Below that, “Figures” lists the people involved; a name opens that person's page. The page's tags open lists of pages on the same topic, and the type or source opens the list for that type or source. Long pages also have a table of contents.

In the text

In editorial readings, a person's name links to that person's page, and a term from the Defines list links to the page that explains it. Each quotation has a heading that gives who wrote it, in what medium (an email, a forum post, and so on), and when — for example, “Satoshi Nakamoto (email to Adam Back, August 20, 2008, 17:30 UTC).” The heading links to the page of the record being quoted.

After the text

• Commentary — At the end of a primary-source page, the readings that quote the record are listed, under a heading such as “Commentary on this email.”
• Related entries — Pages chosen by the editors, and pages connected to this one by links in the text.
• External sources — Links to where the record came from. If the original page disappears, the content stays available on this site.

Previous and next

Links to the previous and next pages are above the title and below the text. They are ordered by the record's date, with primary sources and readings mixed together. The guides and design documents are the exception: they follow the order of their series.

Threads

Emails and posts that reply to one another can be read together on a thread page. Open it from “View full thread” on the page of any single message. On the thread page, each message has a “Permalink” link that opens the message's own page. A message quoted in a reading also has a “Commentary” link, which opens the reading that quotes it, or a list of those readings if there are several.

Figures and defined terms

A person's page lists the entries that involve them. The major figures also have a biography on that page. The “Figure Network” on the home page shows the connections between people as a diagram.

Choose a term from the Defines list to see the page that explains it most fully, along with a list of the pages that mention it in their text. The links on terms in the text also go to the page that explains the term.

Citing and reuse

How to cite this site is on the How to cite page, and the terms for reuse are on the License and reuse page. “日本語” in the menu opens the Japanese version of the same page.