In what year was the Bitcoin network launched?

In what year was the Bitcoin network launched? The Bitcoin network was launched in 2009.

The network’s creation is conventionally dated to 3 January 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block, also called block 0. This block established the initial chain and contained a 50-bitcoin block reward. Its coinbase data included a reference to a 3 January 2009 newspaper headline about a possible bank bailout.

The first publicly released Bitcoin software followed on 9 January 2009, when version 0.1 became available as open-source software. These two dates explain why some accounts distinguish between the network’s birth on 3 January and the software release on 9 January; both events occurred in 2009.

The year is sometimes confused with 2008 because Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper and registered bitcoin.org that year. Those were crucial preparatory steps, but they did not launch the live Bitcoin network. Later milestones, including the first transaction to Hal Finney on 12 January 2009, also belong to the same launch year.