In what year was Bitcoin created?

Bitcoin was created in 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first Bitcoin network and mined its genesis block.

The project’s public history began slightly earlier. In October 2008, Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” describing a decentralized electronic payment system. On January 3, 2009, Nakamoto mined the genesis block, also called block 0. Bitcoin’s open-source software followed shortly afterward, with the first release arriving later that month.

A common mix-up is choosing 2008 because that is when the white paper appeared. Another is choosing 2010, when Bitcoin began receiving wider attention and early exchanges and transactions helped establish a usable market. Those dates mark important stages, but the network itself began in 2009.

Bitcoin was not created by a company or government. It was introduced under a pseudonym, and Nakamoto’s real identity remains unknown. The system combined cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, digital signatures and proof-of-work mining into a functioning decentralized currency.