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If, in 2021, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery, so too does the two-year period from 2008 to 2010 when Bitcoin’s creator served as the project’s principal developer and leader.
Yet, far from a lifeless period of project development, during those years Nakamoto worked with dozens if not hundreds of Bitcoin users, all of whom contributed to the effort in different ways, establishing websites, engaging in commerce and evangelizing for his invention.
Still, some users naturally emerged as more distinguished contributors.
Whether it was by helping establish core elements of the Bitcoin philosophy or articulating its value propositions in new and novel ways, a meritocracy developed as quickly as the market, with some contributors earning outsized accolades from their peers.
With that in mind, this list aims to identify the contributors who most helped to define and shape Bitcoin and its early years, identifying their specific efforts and spotlighting their relevant work.
Martti Malmi (@Sirius)
Satoshi’s initial assistant, Martti Malmi, demonstrated a commitment to Bitcoin at a time when few were willing to see value in an internet currency that lacked even an exchange rate.
A university student in May 2009, Malmi contributed most directly to Bitcoin.org and the Bitcoin Wiki, where he helped make the websites look more comprehensive and professional. (He was less kind to euros he used at the time, writing “Bitcoin.org” on any bills he encountered.)
Malmi also added an early Austrian perspective to conversations around Bitcoin, dismissing complaints about gold as “old Keynesian arguments” and noting that the precious metal was “unmatched” by any paper money in the stability it offered over time.
In his entrepreneurial efforts, Malmi was less successful, his early bitcoin exchange service, BitcoinExchange.com, struggling to get off the ground in 2010.
Yet, he’d arguably make his biggest mark evangelizing for Bitcoin, creating a Facebook page (“Say no to central banking — use Bitcoin, the revolutionary P2P currency!” it read) and leading the first major effort to get Bitcoin publicity.
Theymos
One of Bitcoin’s most influential thinkers, Theymos never contributed code to the Bitcoin project directly but worked for years as a central moderator for its major forums.
A keen student of the codebase, his influence was apparent from the project’s earliest days when on the Bitcoin.org forums or IRC Theymos could be counted on to define how the protocol worked, his understanding sometimes even surpassing that of other avid coders.
What’s clear is that, after discovering Bitcoin in February 2010, Theymos went to work auditing the code, as his posts show an intricate understanding of not just the basic concepts, but even the more obscure commands Satoshi added to the codebase at launch.
However, it’s Theymos’ contributions to project philosophy that perhaps stand out the most. The first to point out directly that changes to the code could result in issues impacting the rights of users, it’s clear Theymos thought deeply about the implications of Bitcoin’s design.
For instance, he was at the forefront of arguing users could leverage their ability to fork the code if they ever disagreed with project leadership, an argument he’d push to its limits when he’d attempt to overturn a code change enacted by Satoshi.
The fact that, when looking back at this disagreement, many would side with Theymos’ view on the matter is all the more evidence that his early thinking has endured.
Hal Finney (@Hal)
A storied cypherpunk, Hal Finney tragically only contributed code briefly at the earliest days of Bitcoin and was absent for much of 2009 and 2010 as he struggled to regain his health.
Still, Finney’s influence today rings far and wide, most notably for the enduring optimism with which he approached the project.
Among his sparse blog posts are some of the most widely quoted moments from the project’s history, including his initial calculations on how, if successful, bitcoin could someday be worth millions should it grow to denominate global economic exchange.
Elsewhere, Finney has even been credited with his own branch of philosophy on how Bitcoin might scale, the term “Finnian view” coming to denote his belief that second-layer networks, as well as bitcoin banks, would help solve the technology’s struggles to accommodate demand.
Finney, who passed away in 2014 at 58, was also the recipient of the first-ever bitcoin transaction, and the only person known to have transacted directly with Satoshi Nakamoto.
NewLibertyStandard
What is bitcoin worth? If it’s a question many have asked, NewLibertyStandard was the first to provide a response.
Indeed, the first-ever quoted price for bitcoin was given by NewLibertyStandard on October 5, 2009, when they posted a daily exchange rate of 1,303 BTC per U.S. dollar. The calculation was made by factoring the cost of the electricity used to mine newly minted bitcoin and lauded by Satoshi as a helpful step in pricing the cryptocurrency.
Not just the creator of the earliest bitcoin exchange, NewLibertyStandard proposed using the Thai baht symbol to represent Bitcoin and suggested “BTC” as its three-letter currency code.
Despite his outsized contributions to the bitcoin economy, however, NewLibertyStandard could also wax philosophical. As an example, they were an early advocate for the idea that Bitcoin might enable individuals to peacefully exit their government currencies.
Gavin Andresen
Andresen may not have been the father of Bitcoin, but in many ways, he raised the kid.
An Australian-born Silicon Valley expat best known for creating a standard for 3D graphics in his younger days (VRML), Andresen had an established career in software prior to coding on Bitcoin, which included time spent at computer manufacturer Silicon Graphics.
His rise up the ranks of the Bitcoin meritocracy would be swift. Not only did he give away over 1,000 bitcoin free of charge to new users, but he quickly became Satoshi’s most active contributor, gaining access to update the code directly by late 2010.
Indeed, it would be Andresen who would “step up” in Satoshi’s absence, leading a charge to push new developers to get involved in the project and shouldering the weight of the press and media that descended during Bitcoin’s first rise to the fringes of the tech mainstream in 2011.
Often now critiqued for his role in stoking later frictions in the project, it’s easy to overlook the fact that Andresen was also one of Bitcoin’s most eloquent early spokespeople, his arguments for it as a “just plain better money” finding ears when bitcoin was a “drug currency” to most.
Laszlo Hanyecz (laszlo)
Best known as the man who spent thousands of bitcoin on pizza, Laszlo Hanyecz was a Florida-based coder who first translated Bitcoin (then available only for Windows) into MacOS.
Joining the project in April 2010, Hanyecz quickly announced an interest in running Bitcoin on his iPhone, but it would be his May 2010 decision to pay 10,000 BTC to anyone who would buy him pizza that would mark his most significant contribution.
At the time, Bitcoin had an established price (less than a penny), and bitcoin had been bought and sold, but no real-world product had ever been purchased with the fledgling currency.
Hanyecz’s time with the project would be brief, however. He stopped contributing in August 2010 but has resurfaced from time to time for interviews, most recently in 2009 for the news show “60 Minutes” where he discussed his bitcoin pizza purchase.
Artforz
A largely unknown figure, Artforz is nonetheless credited with notable engineering contributions, as they are thought to be the first Bitcoin user to mine with more powerful GPUs (in the process starting the global mining arms race that continues to this day).
Though Artforz denied making up 25% of the early network’s hash rate as accused, it was a rumor during his day, one they eventually had to address directly on the forums.
Still, if Artforz did mine an outsized number of early blocks, he showed himself to be an altruistic steward of the network, identifying a bug in one case that, if exploited, would have allowed him to spend bitcoin from other wallets he didn’t own, reporting it directly to Satoshi.
Artforz could also explain and defend Bitcoin with the best of them.
When presented with the idea users might never know the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, Artforz settled the conversation succinctly, stating simply: “Let the idea speak for itself.”
Jeff Garzik (jgarzik)
A seasoned Linux open-source contributor by the time he found Bitcoin in 2010, Garzik is known for helping shape project strategy under Andresen, the developer he mentored and encouraged to step up in the wake of Satoshi’s absence.
Yet, Garzik was an active contributor in the days of Satoshi as well, and he remains the author of some of the era’s more often-cited Bitcoin forum posts. Controversially, this includes the first proposal to raise the “block size limit,” first added by Nakamoto, as well as another, more influential proposal to remove subsidies for free transactions.
Later conflicts aside, a review of Garzik’s posts shows what made him such a strong advocate for Bitcoin, one who was revered for thoughtful articulations on how the early network worked.
In one memorable line, Garzik said: “The effort to raise the transaction rate limit is the same as the effort to change the fundamental nature of bitcoins: convince the vast majority to upgrade.”
Ironically, it would be his efforts to lead such a charge that would mark the end of his time with the Bitcoin project nearly a decade later.
Amir Taaki (genjix)
A former poker professional and open-source video game designer, Amir Taaki was little more than 20 years old when he stumbled on Bitcoin in late 2010.
Though it wouldn’t be until 2014 that he graced the pages of Forbes and Wired on the strength of his preference for Bitcoin as a way to fight the establishment, Taaki showed the flashes of what would make him such a polarizing (and popular) figure even in the days of Satoshi.
First and foremost, he’d attempt to get the organizations he most admired into Bitcoin — organizations like Anonymous and WikiLeaks.
As he went about coding what would be the first-ever alternative implementation (libbitcoin), Taaki would find time to build a coalition to convince WikiLeaks to accept bitcoin, a decision that would eventually put him at odds with Satoshi who protested the move.
“Sorry for trying to do something,” he would state in response to later criticism.
His early forum posts showcase how and why Taaki would emerge as such a lightning rod, his responses equal parts combative, illuminating and pulsing with intensity.
Kiba
Likely the least well-known name on this list, Kiba isn’t exactly an industry name.
That said, they are responsible for helping shape something that continues to this day, the legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto. As a string of Twitter, IRC and BitcoinTalk posts from 2010 to 2011 show, Kiba was the first to play around with the idea of Satoshi’s identity, or in his own words, to try “damn hard to make the mystery of Satoshi a meme.”
These efforts mostly took the form of sketches of Bitcoin’s creator, in which Kiba depicted him as everything from a Japanese warrior to a woman in a series he called “The Mysteries of Satoshi Nakamoto.” (His Bitcoin art, sadly, is lost to link rot.)
But while he could be playful, it’s clear Kiba knew Bitcoin users were in charge, dropping early quotes that would be sure to kill on Twitter even today. “Satoshi’s invention is useless without us using it,” he wrote in October 2010.
When Satoshi finally left the project, it was Kiba who declared what appears to be the first Bitcoin holiday, canonizing April 28, 2011, as “Satoshi Disappear Day,” writing:
“I propose we make a Bitcoin holiday in honor of our legendary anonymous founder and to observe the fact that the bitcoin community will be just fine after the inventor of bitcoin left.”
Today, Bitcoin Magazine carries on that tradition.