Bitcoin's first developer after Satoshi
In May 2009, a 20-year-old Helsinki computer-science student wrote to Satoshi Nakamoto offering to help. Over the next two years they exchanged roughly 260 emails — the largest known volume of correspondence between Satoshi and any single individual. Malmi kept the archive private for thirteen years. In February 2024 he submitted it as evidence in the COPA v Wright trial.
Martti Malmi (born 1988, Helsinki, Finland) studied computer science at Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University). His contributions to Bitcoin’s first two years included the Linux port, the bitcoin.org website, the original Bitcoin forum (which became BitcoinTalk), and the first known bitcoin-for-fiat sale.
In May 2009, Malmi discovered Bitcoin and contacted Satoshi Nakamoto, offering to help with the project. Their correspondence would grow to approximately 260 emails — the largest known volume of communication between Satoshi and any single individual. These emails were entered into evidence during the COPA v Wright trial in February 2024.
Malmi ported the Bitcoin software to Linux, making it accessible beyond Windows for the first time. He set up and managed the bitcoin.org website, the project’s primary information hub. He also created the original Bitcoin forum (which later became BitcoinTalk), the community’s first dedicated discussion platform. Satoshi acknowledged the contributions in the Bitcoin 0.2 release announcement (December 2009):
“Many thanks to Martti (sirius-m) for all his development work.”
On October 12, 2009, Malmi sold 5,050 BTC to NewLibertyStandard for $5.02 via PayPal. This is widely recognized as the first known exchange of bitcoin for fiat currency, establishing that bitcoin had real-world monetary value. Malmi later confirmed this transaction on Twitter, stating he made the sale “to help him get the world’s first bitcoin trading service started.”
On December 3, 2010, as Satoshi was stepping back from active development, Malmi asked who should take over Bitcoin development and management. Satoshi’s reply was direct:
“It should be Gavin [Andresen]. I trust him, he’s responsible, professional, and technically much more Linux capable than me.”
This private exchange anchored the formal SVN handover to Andresen on December 12, 2010 and Andresen’s public assumption of project management on December 19, 2010.
Malmi continued occasional correspondence with Satoshi into early 2011. The final known email Satoshi sent to Malmi was on February 22, 2011 — two months before Satoshi’s last private exchanges with Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen. Malmi gradually reduced his involvement in Bitcoin development around 2011 as other developers took on larger roles. He went on to work in the technology industry in Finland.
44 entries
On the public record, Satoshi developed Bitcoin on Windows exclusively for 27 months (design + release + early period); Linux engagement first appears as reactive support for Malmi's port.
Martti Malmi's first message to Satoshi: introduces himself as Trickstern from the anti-state.com forum, offers to help with Bitcoin development.
Satoshi's first reply to Martti Malmi, who had offered to help with Bitcoin. Satoshi praises Malmi's understanding of Bitcoin and asks him to help write website content and a FAQ.
Malmi agrees to develop the Bitcoin website and FAQ, proposes password-protected private keys, and reports running a Bitcoin node 24/7.
Satoshi addresses concerns about Bitcoin's energy consumption, arguing it would be far less than traditional banking while acknowledging the tension between economic liberty and conservation.
Satoshi reviews Malmi's FAQ draft and warns against framing Bitcoin as an investment, stating 'we can't pitch it as that' - a historically significant stance on Bitcoin's positioning.
Satoshi suggests using the word 'cryptocurrency' to describe Bitcoin and asks Malmi to remove investment language from the site - a key moment in Bitcoin's branding history.
Malmi proposes creating a Bitcoin-to-fiat exchange service, detailing pricing formulas and profit mechanisms. This led to one of the first Bitcoin exchanges and the historic first BTC-to-USD sale.
Satoshi emphasizes that autostart with minimize-to-tray is 'a must-have feature' for network growth, comparing it to early file-sharing strategies. Implemented by Malmi for Bitcoin 0.2.
Complete record of all four developers who had commit access to Bitcoin's SourceForge SVN repository. 252 revisions were recorded from August 30, 2009 to September 13, 2011.
Martti Malmi sells 5,050 BTC to NewLibertyStandard for $5.02 via PayPal — the first known Bitcoin-to-fiat exchange, establishing a real-world price of ~$0.001 per BTC.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 12. after msg54.
Bitcoin v0.2 was released on SourceForge, introducing Linux support, multi-processor mining, proxy support for Tor, and GUI improvements contributed by Martti Malmi.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 17. before msg85.
Quoted post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 34.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 5. after msg28.
Martti Malmi (sirius) starts a discussion: Make your "we accept Bitcoin" logo.
Quoted post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 47.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 58. before msg413.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 59. after msg414.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 60. before msg446.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 63. before msg482.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 88. before msg806.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 101. before msg1134.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 137. after msg1195.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 151. before msg1259.
Context post by Martti Malmi in BitcoinTalk topic 177.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 179. before msg1588.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 55. quoted by msg4008.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 184. after msg1609.
Satoshi warns Malmi to de-emphasize Bitcoin's anonymity claims, distinguishing between anonymity and pseudonymity - a prescient warning about privacy expectations.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 234. after msg1976.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 84. before msg2010.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 326. after msg3157.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 431. before msg3773.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 782. quoted by msg8803.
Context post by sirius in BitcoinTalk topic 850. before msg10067.
When Malmi asks who should take over Bitcoin development, Satoshi recommends Gavin Andresen as 'responsible, professional' — early signal of the transition formalized by the December 12 SVN handover.
Gavin warns that distributing the forum database would betray registered users' trust, supports daily PGP-encrypted backups, and offers to pay for Amazon S3 storage if backups stay under a gigabyte.
When correspondents wished Satoshi merry Christmas, predicted Bitcoin at $10M per coin, or hoped he was doing well, his replies opened on the technical topic and never returned. Five-pattern audit.
Satoshi's last email in the Malmi archive (Feb 22, 2011). Reply to Gavin (Martti in third person), handing over the bitcoin-list mailman password as PGP blocks to each.
The hypothesis that Len Sassaman (cypherpunk cryptographer, died July 3, 2011) was Satoshi. Frame: timing argument and cypherpunk credentials. Counter: no direct documentary link, no widow comment.
Jameson Lopp argues Hal Finney could not have been Satoshi: on April 18, 2009, Finney was running a 10-mile race in Santa Barbara during a window of Satoshi network activity.
During Day 13 of COPA v Wright, Martti Malmi testified via video link and submitted 260 emails (140,000 words) exchanged with Satoshi between May 2009 and February 2011, published on GitHub.