A Beginner's Guide to the Bitcoin Whitepaper

On October 31, 2008, a nine-page research paper was published on an online cryptography mailing list outlining the concept of a radically new kind of currency.

The proposed Bitcoin protocol, titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” promised a trustless digital currency that was borderless, protected by cryptography, and not controlled by banks.

An anonymous person or group calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto published the document during the global financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. housing market, later known as the Great Recession.