This week: Bitcoin. We trace it from its humble origins in a .PDF to the movement it has spawned, all over three days at an enormous Bitcoin conference in Miami. (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island.) Support the show over at searchengine.show! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Hi, I'm PJ Vogt. This is the second of our Crypto Island favorites that we're sharing with you. In this episode, which takes place in April 2022, we were fascinated by the idea of Bitcoin's white paper, the notion that a currency would have a founding document laying out how it should work, written by a pseudonymous author.
We wanted to start in that document and trace it to where it had led, to see how something that is so open to interpretation could be interpreted in some very strange ways. We wanted to meet the pilgrims who had followed in Satoshi Nakamoto's wake. I hope you enjoy it. This one is special to me. We'll play it after some brief ads. Surge Engine is brought to you by AutoTrader.
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Or whether you just want something practical with no surprise costs, if you see a car you like, find it on AutoTrader. See it, find it, AutoTrader. A lot of people already know the origin story of Bitcoin, but I'm just going to recite it one more time. It is fall of 2008. Good evening. George W. Bush is president. We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis.
Lehman Brothers has just collapsed. Number one movie in the country, Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Number one song in the country, T.I. 's Whatever You Like. This is where I would play a clip for you, but the podcast budget does not really allow a fair use lawyer. You'll just have to imagine it.
On Halloween of that year, 2008, a person claiming to be a Japanese man named Satoshi Nakamoto appears on a cryptography mailing list to announce his new invention, Bitcoin. He describes this invention in a white paper. It's called Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. This white paper, it's an elegant document. Text runs just eight pages long, minus footnotes.
In precise academic language, he describes the problem he set out to solve. Quote, Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic... Quote, Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic... Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
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