A FORUM FOR DEBATE

While the Bitcoin network provides a permanent record of its onchain history, the Bitcointalk forum does the same for its off-chain history. Memorable Satoshi sayings; legendary forum users; early memes; camaraderie and in-fighting. It’s all there, documented for future Bitcoin historians to pore over.

Though commonly known today as Bitcointalk on account of its bitcointalk.org domain, the forum started out at www.bitcoin.org/smf/ and later on a sub-domain at forums.bitcoin.org before migrating to its current home in 2011. It’s been there ever since, and while internet forums have since been largely replaced by social media, Bitcointalk remains famous as the place where many of the most famous events in Bitcoin history unfolded.

Registered by Satoshi on November 17th, 2009, the forum quickly became the home for conversation surrounding the Bitcoin network and the growing culture surrounding it. From the use cases Bitcoin could support to the users who supported it, the forum’s early years are a goldmine for anyone studying the cryptocurrency’s evolution from an idea into a world-changing reality.

Its most famous member is of course Satoshi, who posted just 575 times during the 13 months he was active, but it boasted plenty of other pseudonymous users who would go on to become famous (and occasionally notorious) in their own right. Hal Finney (Hal), Martti Malmi (sirius), Gavin Andresen (gavinandresen), and Vitalik Buterin are just some of the noteworthy users who could be found lurking and posting in the forum’s early days.

From Technology to Philosophy

Early forum threads were primarily centred around the technicalities of running Bitcoin as new users got to grips with the software. But before long, discussion widened to encompass more cultural and philosophical matters. “How anonymous are bitcoins?” was the topic of one early thread, while others explored its value and ability to be exchanged for goods and services.

While disagreements weren’t unheard of, if there’s one theme that defines the first 18 months of the Bitcointalk forum, it’s harmony. Its users, who numbered no more than a few dozen at that time, had little idea of where Bitcoin was headed and of the global movement it would become. But they knew they’d stumbled across something special and were eager to work together to elevate Bitcoin into the world-changing phenomenon it had the potential to become.

After Satoshi left the scene, custodianship of the forum was handed to Martti Malmi who became lead admin. Control then passed to Theymos in 2012, who continues to run the forum to this day. While the Bitcointalk forum is not technically decentralised, like Bitcoin it’s proven remarkably immune from attempts to shut down or censor it. Although no longer the primary gateway to discovering the world of Bitcoin, the Bitcointalk forum remains community-centric, having retained its grassroots ethos even as Bitcoin has gone mainstream.

Many of the most famous moments in early Bitcoin history occurred on the forum including the first bitcoin-to-fiat trade in October 2009. They remain immortalised there to this day, threaded together like blocks that form an indelible record of defining moments in Bitcoin history.