Happy birthday dear Bitcoin: Crypto's first white paper turns 12

Has it only been a dozen years since Oct. 31, 2008, that Satoshi Nakamoto published a modest nine-page paper describing a new online payments system called "Bitcoin?" Depending on where one stands, that pseudonymous white paper - its author(s) remain unidentified - fostered either a fintech revolution or, as some believe, "The greatest scam in history."

Would Satoshi Nakamoto have been pleased with how Bitcoin and blockchain technology have developed and evolved over the past 12 years?

The influence of Bitcoin's white paper goes beyond finance, Garrick Hileman, head of research at Blockchain.com, told Cointelegraph: "Its impact is worthy of being considered alongside other major technical innovations, such as the personal computer and internet."

Angel went further: "Satoshi would be appalled at the politics of concentrated mining pools that currently dominate the Bitcoin protocol." While Pieters added that Satoshi would be disappointed that the "Primary transactions of Bitcoin were not occurring through peer-to-peer trading, but rather intermediated by centralized exchanges or companies."

The matter of fraud in digital transactions has always loomed, and in Bitcoin's white paper Satoshi proposed a way to solve the classic "Double-spend" problem - where miscreants spend the same coin twice, something not difficult to do with electronic coins.

"Nakamoto would be astonished by the growth of blockchain projects and the many thousands of digital coins and tokens that have been created in the image of Bitcoin. One suggestive piece of evidence is that Nakamoto fixed the size of the blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain at 1MB in 2010 and mysteriously commented that 'we can always increase this later when we need to.'".

In the past 12 years, most of Satoshi's original software code has been altered or substituted, added Hileman, but still, Bitcoin has retained its key foundational qualities, including "Its fixed supply of 21 million coins, open access, and censorship/tamper resistance. I believe Satoshi would be happy with the ongoing software optimizations and improvements to these core foundational characteristics that continue today."

While little is known about Satoshi's politics, his creation, in the form of the first crypto blockchain, would also be disturbed by the idea of central bank digital currencies, and in some cases, "Those currencies are designed for repressive governments to engage in even more surveillance and control over their populations," added Angel.

The market value of Bitcoin stands at $251 billion 12 years after the idea was unveiled.

Whether Bitcoin is also harming the environment, abetting money launderers or propping up political regimes, goes beyond the scope of his paper.