What was #SatoshiNakamoto’s first public act? Before the Whitepaper. Before the code. Before the #GenesisBlock. On 18 August 2008, #Satoshi anonymously registered a simple domain: bitcoin.org. Almost no one noticed. But that domain would become the launchpad for a monetary revolution. When the site first appeared, it was just 700 words in plain text. The opening line introduced “the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system that uses a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending. It’s completely decentralized with no server or central authority.” It was concise. Direct. #Cypherpunk to the core. To register the domain anonymously, Satoshi used a service called AnonymousSpeech, a tool designed for anonymous domains and email. Achieving this anonymity required creative methods: cash mailed to a Swiss PO box, e-gold digital currency, and a bank wire to a Swiss account under the name “Mike Weber.” There is irony in the fact that Satoshi had to jump through all these hoops. If only a peer-to-peer digital currency had existed. Once the domain was secured, he built a simple website that would become Bitcoin’s earliest basecamp. Six weeks after registering it, on October 31st 2008, Satoshi announced #Bitcoin to the Cryptography Mailing List, linking to the Whitepaper hosted on bitcoin.org. The site included screenshots of the original Bitcoin client, downloading instructions via SourceForge, and a brief explanation of how the system worked. For early adopters, it was all they needed to begin running the software. In the following months, the site expanded with an introduction to Bitcoin, a list of advantages, and help for new users. It emphasised key ideas: no central authority, no reliance on trusted intermediaries, and the ability to hide real-world identity. Many sections were likely written by #Satoshi or Martti Malmi, one of the earliest contributors. By 2010, bitcoin.org was receiving worldwide attention, and Satoshi was preparing to leave. True to his design principles, he decentralised control of the domain before stepping back. Developer wbnns recalls: “When Satoshi left the project, he gave ownership of the domain to additional people, separate from the Bitcoin developers, to spread responsibility and prevent any one person or group from easily gaining control over the Bitcoin project.” Since then, bitcoin.org has been maintained by various community members. It still receives millions of visits a year and remains one of Bitcoin’s most important historical artefacts. A simple domain, but the gateway to everything that came next. We’ve captured this chapter in “The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi” with the artwork “THE WEBSITE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD” by Vesa (@artbyvesa on X). It appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article:

History of Bitcoin

The Website That Changed the World

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto quietly registered Bitcoin.org. Once unnoticed, the domain became the launchpad for the world’s first cryptocurrency.