Gwern

2 entries

Event August 20, 2008 Added October 15, 2026 Updated October 16, 2026 Analysis

Bitcoin whitepaper's lost first draft: the PDF Satoshi emailed in August 2008

Satoshi Nakamoto ↔ Adam Back, Wei Dai, Gwern, James Evans, StealthMonger, David Johnston

On August 20, 2008 Satoshi emailed Adam Back a link to a draft titled "Electronic Cash Without a Trusted Third Party." Its title and abstract survive in two emails. The PDF does not.

Event March 17, 2014 Added October 15, 2026 Updated October 15, 2026 Web Document

Gwern on the lost pre-release draft of the Bitcoin whitepaper (gwern.net, 2014–2017)

Gwern ↔ Satoshi Nakamoto, Wei Dai, Adam Back

Gwern lists where he looked for the draft Satoshi linked in August 2008: the file host, the Internet Archive, Google, BitcoinTalk, SVN. Dai, Back and Maxwell had no copy; Finney never replied.